


Undying Night

by Syra_Nova



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angels, Blood, Immortality, Multi, Mystery, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:49:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23915593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syra_Nova/pseuds/Syra_Nova
Summary: For the last year, Erin has needed to come to grips with the fact that she can't die anymore. Not by normal means. Supernatural ones though? She never knew they existed before.Genevieve has already long since known those things existed. And they all blur together because she's seen them all. The burden of experience is heavy on the undying.But neither of them has seen anything like the other before. So why are they so alike?Between the two of them, which one is in over her head?Inspired by a prompt from this lovely blog here:http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com
Relationships: Undisclosed Relationship(s)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, I saw a prompt on a tumblr blog, got a bug up my butt about it and wrote this over the course of about 4 one-hour blocks between that evening and the next day. 
> 
> Enjoy?
> 
> Edit: That was true of the first chapter lol. Now we're getting into the shit for realzies. Theorize with me while we go down the rabbit hole and let's watch what happens.

“Hey, uh, quick question, kind of time sensitive.”

"Yeah, shoot."

"Ok, so uh… How do you clean up a blood spill that's, I don't know, about half the size of my carpet?"

"Oh god, what? You're not on your period, are you?"

"Are you kidding me? No!"

"I had to ask. Wait there, I'm coming over."

"What kind of question even-"

Genevieve looked at her phone in annoyance, baffled as always by Annie's curt demeanor. 

At least she didn't ask any questions, as Geni knew she wouldn't. 

That just left the questions she'd have to answer from the woman currently standing on the aforementioned blood-soaked carpet. Staring at her. Suspiciously. 

Though it wasn't as if Geni didn't have questions of her own. After all, Erin was the source of all that blood. 

"That was far too serious a request to be accepted so easily," Erin said in a wary tone. "And you are far too calm for someone that just witnessed the murder of an Angel."

"Well…" Geni wasn't sure how to respond to that. She was very distracted by the blood that continued to ooze out of the numerous gashes on Erin's body. The urge to start trying to mop it up using the towels that she'd gotten out of the dryer that morning was making her itchy. "Not like it's the first time I guess. God, I wish you would at least put some pressure on those cuts. That blood's gonna stain the floorboards." 

It was hard not to whine since Erin had already assured her she wouldn't be dying from blood loss, which had led to Geni calling Annie for help. With imminent death not on the table she was more concerned for her apartment. She didn't want to have to explain these huge bloodstains to the landlord. 

"Wow." A dull response to Geni's casual dismissal of supernatural mentions, clearly catching Erin off guard. "Now I understand why so many of our coworkers said you didn't care about anyone."

"They're not exactly wrong, honestly."

"So you're not going to ask me about what just happened then."

"I wasn't planning on it. I've heard enough to put the pieces together anyway. You killed an Angel and got torn up doing it but you're not dying so that makes you some kind of Immortal. Which means you're on the run. Honestly, I just wish you hadn't done it in my living room. This is gonna be hell to clean. Kinda just wanna get you out so I don't get involved in your problems."

This was all making Geni very much regret offering up her place as a temporary refuge from the obnoxious thunderstorm happening right now. You couldn't even see more than a block in any direction through the torrents of rain which was especially awful in Manhattan traffic. 

Why did it have to be her turn to pick up lunch today and why did she have to have the most inconvenient tagalong ever?

"Speaking of problems I'm texting George and Karen that we're not coming back today. This is dumb and I'm not dealing with their shit 'til tomorrow."

Erin was now just standing awkwardly in place, deflating as Geni completely removed the need to justify or defend herself. Clearly she'd been expecting to have to explain what was likely a very complicated situation that she even more likely wanted to keep very secret.

Not necessary with someone like Geni. She wasn't called Stoneface, Queen of Boredom, or any other number of childish nicknames around the office for no reason. She just didn't care about anyone else's problems. She was there to do her work, earn her paycheck, and go home to take care of her own business. Courtesy and respect were given to those around her but making friends was on the bottom of her priority list. 

So they stood in silence but for the drip drip of blood landing on the floor, the tapping sounds of Geni's phone keyboard, and the blanket of noise from the rain outside. 

"Want any water? Juice? I'll get you whatever you want if you promise not to move."

Erin blinked in confusion but nodded slowly after a moment's consideration. "I've already had my fill of water I think. Some juice would be fine."

Her weak attempt at humor referencing their mad dash across Geni's parking lot through the rain was met with silence. In short order Erin had a glass of apple juice in one hand and a roll of bread in the other after she carefully sought out a patch of fabric on her leg that she could wipe her hand on. 

"I'm going to go shower. Annie should be here soon so just hang tight. If you move an inch from that spot you might just wish you were able to die." Geni's threat was just cold enough to send a shiver down Erin's spine as she watched the willowy woman walk down a hall, shedding her suit and freeing dark hair as she went. 

Despite the fact that she was the Immortal who had just strangled a divine being into non-existence, she felt shockingly mundane faced up against this senior businesswoman that already seemed to understand everything at play here without being told. 

Erin supposed she would just have to wait for this "Annie" to show up…

Like Geni had said though, it wasn't long before the lock on the front door rattled and in walked the last person Erin had expected to see. 

"Ms. Penn-!"

Bethany "Annie" Penn was now looking down at her like a disapproving parent and heaving a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. 

"Of course it had to be you," the secretary to Mr. Spencer's company and the one who had helped Erin get her new home and job here situated. 

"I-I'm sorr-" Erin began to say before being interrupted. 

"No, no, I'm not angry with you, Ms. Sterling. Just frustrated," Annie explained. "I guess I should have seen this coming. Genevieve has an unfortunate knack for attracting trouble, you see. Hey! Get in here and start the cleaning!"

Erin blinked as three young men in soaked coveralls and hoodies walked in with numerous cleaning supplies and immediately set to work attacking the blood on the floor, even giving her a tarp to stand on so she didn't mark anything up further. With her wounds beginning to close she at least wasn't actively bleeding anymore and that alleviated the last lingering effects of her adrenaline. It helped clear her head and make connections. 

"Is- Does that mean she's-"

"Also a part of the same program as you, yes," Annie affirmed. "But, while this is your first month, this is her twenty-eighth year."

That… made a lot more sense than any of the wild speculating that Erin had been doing. It was such an obvious reason to why Geni would so completely break down the situation so quickly. 

"Where is she anyway?" Annie asked. 

"Hm? Oh, shower," Erin said absentmindedly, sipping the last of her juice she'd been working on. As strange as this last half hour had been it felt relieving to know it would be taken care of now. Until Annie took that away from her. 

"Then why isn't there any water running?"

It was only then that Erin noticed the absence of the sound of the rain outside as well as the silence in the apartment aside from the cleaning crew's scrubbing brushes. 

Without thinking, she turned and made tracks down the hall with her bloodied feet to throw open the bathroom door-

And there was Geni, ghastly ethereal spikes through her wrists, chest, legs, and neck suspending her naked body a meter off the ground-

With the wispy form of another Death Angel slowly circling her. 

_ Ah. There you are.  _

The chilling voice sent a shot of fear through Erin as the velvety tones seeped into her mind. 

_ This one is proving difficult to take so We will complete her capture soon. We will take you first, Erin Sterling. _

But they never would. With the Angel's attention diverted to Erin, Geni's body went from lifeless to violently animated, shattering her unearthly bonds and leaping into its form as it drifted through the air. 

Erin watched her coworker's eyes and mouth glow with an unnatural white light that seemed to  _ consume  _ the Angel as they howled in what could only be described as agony. 

" _ What did I just tell you about tracking blood on my floors, Sterling? _ "


	2. Chapter 2

"-so, like the notice from corporate said, we're to integrate these new policies over the course of the next month. Think of it like a light restructuring. Now, I'm not saying it's going to be easy to flip our habits around, but we'll all know it inside-out and backwards if we do it as a family."

Fake but polite laughter swept through the presentation room as George paused for effect, satisfied with his bland efforts at being a good leader. 

For Geni's part at his side it took no small amount of effort to keep her eyes from rolling back in her head and her mouth in its usual flat line. She just needed to wait for him to finish his morale speech and outline the general plan of action so she could start explaining the details of the actual new policy. If it were her choice she wouldn't bother with the niceties and would just jump into the important parts of their job. 

But that was why George was the general manager and she was the logistics manager. 

While he rambled though she could watch the staff's attentiveness since both of them knew that she was far better at it and could pick out those who didn't understand something and didn't want to admit it. 

There were certainly a lot of slack, bored faces, but that was to be expected when the first order of business was the weekly office meeting. Eyes were a better indicator than drooping shoulders or idle hands and most were focused enough- With one exception. 

Geni already wasn't surprised by it. 

To the rest of the office staff, it would be expected that Erin Sterling would feel a little lost in the flow of regular business when she had only been here for a scant couple of weeks. With her big, dark eyes, her young face, and ill-fitting suit, everything about her screamed of a fresh graduate in her first office job. She learned quickly but of course lagged behind in favor of accuracy over speed. Very normal. It made perfect sense for her to seem a little overwhelmed at the prospect of learning a new method after already starting one. 

Geni, however, was fairly certain that Erin's vacant gaze had nothing to do with the meeting and everything to do with yesterday's "incident". 

Honestly she blamed herself for not noticing either of the intruders in her apartment sooner. It would have saved them both a lot of trouble and undue stress. 

Going by how gentle Annie had been in helping a shell-shocked Erin calm down, clean up, and get sent home, it seemed most of the stress had been on her small shoulders. This was Annie, after all. All business, all the time. Tough. Powerful. Commanding, even. An Amazon among women. But this girl had clearly plucked at the woman's surprisingly tender heart strings, so she had obviously been through some things.

That was probably also why Erin had been placed in her office. Annie would want her help integrating the girl and helping her get comfortable in her new second life. If all that hadn't happened yesterday then Geni likely would have been introduced to her as a fellow Immortal before long anyway. All of them came her way eventually, older or younger. 

This had been one of the rockier first meetings. 

Geni was a true magnet for trouble. Annie knew that. 

All she could do for now though was just wait. Wait for time away from the office so they could sit down and have a proper conversation without the threat of being dragged away by another greedy ghost.

* * *

The world moved on. Just like always, with its callous disregard for anyone's struggles. And they moved with it. 

_"Just go back to work tomorrow and stick out the day. You'll feel a little better after some sleep and some normalcy. Promise. Besides, you just started. Can't afford to be missing days already."_

Erin wasn't sure she believed Ms. Penn's words anymore now than she had last night. Every corner she turned around that had someone on the other side of it made her jump a mile high. Anytime someone touched her or spoke to her she startled like a deer in headlights. She'd been asked numerous times if she was feeling okay and had managed to eke out a quiet "mhm" about half the time but she didn't feel okay once. Not at all.

The clock ticked too slow. Explanations felt mixed and jumbled. Soup and coffee tasted like sawdust and dirt. Words on the screen blurred together. 

The endless meeting first thing in the morning had been the worst of it. So much happened but she had no recollection of it. Her normally overflowing notebook was empty. Every second had been an hour. And she had to listen to Genevieve Hawthorne drill things into everyone's heads while she burned through her neverending slides. As if nothing were amiss. 

To be fair, nothing was. To the unknowing observer. Just as Erin's cuts and lacerations had all closed and smoothed over, so too were the gaping, bloodless wounds in Genevieve's body gone. But that wasn't what Erin saw. 

She'd spent most of her sleepless night reliving those terrifying moments she thought she'd gotten an innocent killed. That Angel's sick way of crucifying someone to ferry their spirit away had shown up over and over again on the insides of her eyelids. 

A little distracting, even when the "innocent" turned out to be an Immortal, just like her. Which should have alleviated her anxiety. 

Maybe it was because she didn't know what kind of Immortal Geni was. Ms. Penn had explained to her in the beginning that there were many different ways someone could end up like that. She had even met a few. In trying to narrow it down she recalled that the only ones that didn't bleed were most often Undead. Except that Geni clearly didn't have the limitations or looks of an Undead. And Erin had never heard of any kind of Immortal, Undead or otherwise, that could turn the tables so swiftly on an Angel. 

Running through the possibilities was the only thing that could assuage Erin's anxiety at all. Parsing data was soothing like that and her mind chomped at the bit to unravel a mystery rather than rot with worry.

If only she could properly figure it out. 

"Welp. Time to head out. Laters, Erin!"

Erin startled but managed to wave vaguely in her trainer's direction as she realized that the last hour of the workday had finally finished. A quick glance out the window near their desk also showed her that Ms. Penn was already in front of the building to pick her up too. 

In any normal circumstances she'd feel annoyed at the thought of being ferried around like a child. 

Nothing sounded better right now. 

It felt good to move again when the payoff was being able to go back to her brightly lit apartment and sit in front of a screen where she could do research on things she wanted to know about instead of read legalese for hours on end. Use her notepads for theories instead of application shortcuts. Pitch her purse at a wall and forget it existed for a while. Lounge on a bean bag chair rather than-

"Busy, Sterling?"

Erin stopped her near sprint through the building's front lobby immediately on hearing that voice. It sent a chill down her neck as she realized that the person she'd been obsessing over all day had been somehow lying in wait already even though they'd only just been released from their duties. 

"I- Um, yes? I mean…" Erin trailed off, making a vague gesture in the direction of Ms. Penn's luxury sedan just outside the front door. "I was- Home? I have chores to-"

So much for her composure. It was far more difficult to come off as strong and independent this time. Before she had been running on the high that had come from fighting for her life and winning. It helped her face Geni with calm and rational thought. Now? She was frazzled and distracted, wanting nothing more than to escape instead of play at a verbal jousting match, as Geni seemed wont to do. 

"I'd like to borrow you. Come take a ride with me."

"What."

Riding in Geni's car was… an experience.

For a start, she insisted on driving without any music or radio chatter. Made no effort to start a conversation. Snatched Erin's phone from her before she could react when it began to ring with a call from Ms. Penn and stuffed it in her bra. 

That left Erin alone with her thoughts while Geni navigated the awful rush hour traffic. And question why she thought it was a good idea to ignore Ms. Penn's calls. 

"So…" Erin paused, distracted by some idiot jaywalking and holding up traffic just as a light turned green on their way into Newark. "Where… are we going?" she asked. 

"To talk someplace private."

"Couldn't we just talk at your house or some-

"Would _you_ want to invite someone back in that left _that_ kind of mess all over your floor?"

"I- I mean, no, but-"

"Well there you go then."

Not the answer she'd wanted but even at work it felt like pulling teeth to get a straight answer out of this woman. Geni just plain didn't or refused to read between the lines at all. Those curt, one-line replies seemed to be the only staple of her conversational ability. Now it seemed like it would be ten times worse to try and question her. All Erin really wanted was to find out how far from home they were going. Both of their apartments and the office too were in Manhattan so she wondered why they were going all the way across the river just to talk. 

But before long they swung off of the main streets, leaving them behind in favor of back alleys and dirty side streets. It was dizzying trying to keep up with all the turns they made. At one point she was pretty sure they made more than seven consecutive right turns in the span of about five minutes but every building and street sign looked so similar it was impossible to tell. 

And the payoff was turning into an empty, ancient-looking, busted parking lot for what looked like a bar or nightclub. The neon sign above the door declared it to be _The Last Call_. It was an odd place to go for such a long drive though. It hardly seemed like Geni's type of night out. She pictured her as more of a fine dining type. 

"Is this place even open? It looks… dead." Erin asked. The single story building looked so rough it might just be abandoned, boarded windows included. 

"It is to people like us. Come on."

Erin followed meekly at Geni's imperious insistence, wincing at each harsh clack of the woman's heels on concrete. But she was undoubtedly more curious now at that comment. 

"People like us meaning...?"

"Immortals."

* * *

Genevieve heaved a sigh. Of all people to be here, today of all days, why did it have to be-

"Oh. Is that a sigh I hear? Is the Robot Queen _frustrated_ with me? Really now. What's so frustrating about me? I thought I wasn't intruding on a date, just you showing the new cutie around. You were planning on introducing her to everyone anyway if you brought her here so it's just as well that I come hang out. It _is_ a bar-"

It was significantly less effort to let him talk and think he was getting under her skin than respond and give him the satisfaction of a "reaction". He could keep up this constant outpouring of sass and sarcasm even if she didn't give him any more ammunition. There was no point in egging him on. Besides, before long-

"Mr. Vincent. If you would please remove your arms from my tables. Your leather jacket leaves scuff marks." Walter's cold, indignant tone shut Vincent up in a heartbeat.

"Sorry, Walty." Despite the childish nickname the respect in Vincent's voice was as sincere as the sun in the sky and he moved out of the way to let Walter set down drinks for Geni and Erin. 

"Do let me know if you would like anything more than a water, Miss Erin," Walter intoned in a slightly warmer voice, even sporting a small smile. "And if you need a second glass Miss Genevieve, just call." And then he drifted across the floor back to the bar, unconcerned with things like collision. 

Geni quite appreciated his hands-off demeanor, though she knew he could be quite caring in special circumstances. It wouldn't surprise her if he even cared for Vincent, as aggravating as the man could be. 

As was quickly becoming usual across the table though, Erin watched after Walter's retreat from the table with wary eyes, giving Vincent a similar side-eyed glance. 

"So… Is he-"

"A ghost, yes," Geni supplied, sipping at her wine with an internal sigh. It was a good thing she'd expected questions and had an easy answer. "Walter was born in 1821 and died in 1863. Something to do with the Draft Riots. He's been here ever since."

"Right…" Erin said slowly to Geni's almost dismissive answer. She watched Walter's see-through form float through the bar at the back of the wide-open dining area with a shiver, diverting her attention to Vincent instead at her side where he was lounging with his feet on a chair he'd pulled from another table. "And you're… a vampire?"

"Wasn't always," Vincent answered with a flash of sharp teeth. If he didn't look so genuinely cheerful with that warmth in his bright red eyes, Geni would admit that he could look quite dangerous. Intimidating even with his biker attire and tattooed neck. "But yeah. I was born in 1996, if we're doing that kinda thing. Dad was a normie. Mom was a dhampir. Turned full in 2021 when I died because of a uh- We'll say 'cause I died in a not-so-smart way. Short of it was I was pretty shit at keeping my distance. Got around too much. I mean, I was basically a frat kid without the school obligation, what would you expect?"

Erin snorted, looking concerned about whether or not she should laugh at Vincent's deadpan delivery until he laughed with her. 

Sometimes Geni wondered where Vincent picked up that boundless optimism. It was almost a blessing in disguise that he happened to be here when she was introducing someone new to their little community as his friendly attitude was quite helpful in putting people at ease. But still. With his family being the kind of people they were, it was a little baffling, even to her. 

She wasn't here to focus on Vincent though. She was here to talk to Erin. 

"As far as why I brought you here Ms. Sterling, consider this an apology for starting off on the wrong foot," Geni interjected. If she were going to let Vincent do all the socializing, she may as well say what she wanted to. "We would have met as our real selves in a couple more weeks once Annie thought you felt a little more comfortable at the office. I treated you more like a typical nuisance than someone in the program since I didn't know. And I'm sorry. So, I thought I could bring you by here. It's a good place to get away if the act gets tiresome. Annie probably wanted to toughen you up by not giving you an escape at first."

"Ha! That sounds like her," Vincent said, taking a swig of his beer and gesturing at Geni. "Man, you got screwed Erin. She talks kinda sweet sometimes but between her and Annie you got the biggest hard-asses around. That's rough, buddy."

Even though she was busy kicking Vincent's chair out from under him while he giggled unrepentantly, Geni didn't miss the frown on Erin's face as she processed all that. It wouldn't be the first time Annie had used this tactic on a newcomer and it likely wouldn't be the last. Geni just didn't care to deal with keeping Annie's white lies intact. It got problems out of her way faster if she was straight with the facts from the start, especially since the smarter newcomers came to her for answers anyway. 

"Well. Apology accepted. I guess," Erin said hesitantly. She fidgeted with the rim of her glass, seeming less amused with Vincent's shenanigans than she'd been before. "So… If you're supposed to be my senior or whatever like Ms. Penn planned, can you tell me more about you? You know, like, do you not care about people at the office because they're not like us? Because they'll die and leave us behind? Or because they'll think you're a freak of nature because you can somehow kill what shouldn't be killable? Because it sure looked like you killed that thing. How do you do that anyway? I was pretty sure from what I learned that _no one_ can do that. We can only get rid of them temporarily like I did."

Geni had expected questions. Everyone had questions at first. But Erin's questions caught her off guard when they were all about her specifically and not anything else. Then again, other new arrivals didn't meet her in these kinds of circumstances. 

And she definitely should have expected Vincent to meddle and provide his own answerslike he usually did. 

"Are you kidding? Geni's the freakiest one here. Everybody is just another "nuisance' to her like she said and that's just how it is. And as far as 'freak of nature' goea she's the _freaque de la freaque._ Freaky Fridays are like, personal holidays in her honor. All my nightmares feature-"

Erin jumped a mile high when Geni lost her patience with Vincent entirely, leaping from her chair and tackling him to the floor with her hands closed around his neck. Without air to breathe he couldn't very well continue to chatter. 

"I'd rather not comment on my reasons for treating our coworkers in that way. Suffice to say that I just don't think they need to be involved with me so I keep them at arm's length," Geni explained calmly. As calmly as she could with the amount of force it took to choke the unlife out of Vincent's smug face. 

As per usual though he wasn't fighting. He just had that stupid smirk on his face like always and stretched his arms past his head as a symbol of surrender. "Like… this…" he croaked around her hands to Erin who was watching the scene play out with her hands over her mouth. "She's… kinky like that-"

" _Shut up already, Vincent!_ "

"Genevieve! Care to explain what I'm walking in on _this time_?" 

"Just getting ready for trash collection day."

She squeezed a little harder when Vincent choked out a laugh at her deadpan response but the new arrival didn't seem nearly as amused. 

"Ms. Penn!"

"Hello Ms. Sterling." The program manager greeted Erin with a pat on the young woman's shoulder and a gentle smile. Her severe brown eyes quickly snapped back to Genevieve and Vincent though and she reached down to pry the woman's hands off his neck with ease. "Come on now Geni, that's enough. Just leave him alone."

Vincent took a deep, measured breath once his airway had room to open again, seeming to enjoy the sensation despite his lack of reaction at being deprived of it. "Whew. Thanks for the save boss. I appreciate-"

"Vincent? Don't. You invite it on yourself and if it keeps being a regular problem then I'll stop intervening. Understood?"

Geni was actually somewhat surprised when the man's next wisecrack didn't come and he just smiled wryly instead.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now, let's all have a seat so we can chat for a while. I don't much appreciate being dragged across the city like this but I won't deny an opportunity to down two birds with one stone." Annie's voice always had that 'taking charge' tone to it but Geni always imagined her more as a tired mother. The look she received at the dragging comment said that part was clearly aimed at her but she just shrugged her indifference and calmly pulled up her chair again. Vincent was doing the same and tossed his booted feet up on a chair again while he sipped his beer. Or maybe it was whiskey, now that she looked a little closer. 

Erin sat herself up a little straighter across the table at Annie's words, ever the diligent young thing. Geni wondered for a brief moment how old the girl was. She acted very young for a new Immortal. Freshly minted, maybe? She couldn't be older than her mid 20s. Compared to Vincent who had stopped aging after death at 24 it seemed that way at least. 

"So Ms. Sterling," Annie began, sitting herself down at Geni's side as if to act as a leash of some kind. A fact that didn't escape her notice. The 'Don't Even Think About It™' aura was strong enough to breathe in. "Even though I was intending to speak with you privately regarding yesterday I'll go over that with you in a little while. But since you're here I wanted to introduce you to someone along with everyone else. This is-"

"She's still sitting by the door Annie," Geni interjected, catching the woman in a rare moment of bafflement. She clearly thought her tagalong had stayed right behind her. 

"What? Oh- Lyla you can come over, you know. I promise no one is going to act out. The time for childishness has passed." There was a sweeping, accusatory glance that passed from Geni to Vincent and while she sat stone-faced through it she could hear him snickering under his breath. 

"See, you say that…" Lyla said hesitantly from her spot halfway behind the front door. She still walked into full view though and came over to end up in the seat between Erin and Annie, watching everyone suspiciously like a nervous bird. 

Platinum blonde, almost silver hair in a heavy braid past her waist. Thin and delicate enough that Geni wondered if she might be a vampire if not for the healthy flush of her cheeks under scrutiny. Vincent had one too but he of course didn't count. But that meant Lyla was at least some living type of Immortal. 

"Scout's honor, dude. I'd never be childish enough to mess with a newbie." Vincent was of course right back to cracking wise regardless of Annie's cold stare. 

"You had better not be. I'd rather not go back on the choices I've made just to find some way to punish you," Annie threatened lightly. 

"You could punish me anyway and we'll go from there, mama."

Vincent rarely had Geni smirking but anything that could get Annie this aggravated made her smile. 

" _Anyway_ ," Annie said, taking a deep breath to steel herself against his antics. "This is Lyla. She's been with the program for a month now and is adjusting well to her new life. Lyla, this place here is something of a safe haven for everyone in the program. We come here to socialize with other Immortals and be ourselves without worry of discovery. There are measures put in place to keep both ordinary people as well as Angels out of here so it's a place to let down your guard for a while."

"So a place that isn't my apartment. Okay," Lyla cut in with a relieved sigh, affirming her understanding of where she was now and relaxing a bit. 

She looked to be the overly cautious type to Geni but not so skittish as Erin where she was jumping at shadows. 

"Unlike _her_ apartment though. I- It's nice to meet you Ms. Lyla but I came here to learn about something that's been freaking me out since yesterday and I want answers. Like why was an Angel- _two Angels_ \- able to get into her place if she's a part of the program? Aren't they all supposed to be protected?"

Erin's accusatory look at her was understandable at least, though Geni thought that Annie was more deserving of that glare. Why the woman thought it was a good idea to keep putting new entrants under her watch was beyond her. Especially now that this had happened and Erin was not only terrified herself but scaring her fellow newcomer Lyla. 

"I can answer both of those questions," Geni began before Annie could give some kind of soft political answer. Annie was a born politician through and through and that was her way after all but those answers irritated Geni to no end even if they got the point across. Why pander when you could say it straight? "First and foremost, those Angels were after me because I am one of very few in the city that can kill them back. And second, my home isn't protected so that they _will_ come looking for me. The real reason anyone stays around me is so I can be their bait." 

Geni knew there was a lot more bitter resentment in her voice than either Erin or Lyla deserved as unfamiliar with all of this as they were but luckily they just seemed shocked while Annie took the part of glaring at her for her tone. There was a long silence that went unbroken for some time before a cheery voice burst through as an icy hand with a steel grip pulled Geni from her chair with an undignified noise of offense. 

"Let's go on a bike ride you and me," Vincent insisted with his innocent fanged smile. "Let Annie talk to the newbies alone."


	3. Chapter 3

"I- I need to use the restroom." 

As soon as Vincent pulled Geni outside those doors Erin spat out the first excuse that came to mind so she could walk away from the table, completely avoiding Ms. Penn's and Lyla's eyes. She needed space. Now. Locking herself in a bathroom stall was an easy way to get that and she dropped herself on the porcelain throne with an exhausted whimper. 

Geni was insane. Certifiably. 

Erin couldn't see any other explanation for the woman's behavior. The incident in the apartment? Terrifying. The apology from the woman who had been partially responsible for her fear? Awkward but appreciated. But now that she'd finally seen some "personality" from said woman? A little less appreciated. Hard to tell if it was even genuine or just one of many barely-tolerated niceties. 

Genevieve Hawthorne was like, some kind of psychopath. Sociopath? She never could remember the difference. But the woman barely seemed to care for her own kind, let alone those that weren't like her. Maybe it had something to do with her anomalous existence that made her capable of killing those meant to kill the unkillable. That could explain it. It was so disturbing and decidedly  _ not normal  _ how she could go from being placid and calm to being so unreasonably furious in a fraction of a second. And if she could kill an Angel there was no question of her being able to kill the rest of them. The fact that she hadn't killed Vincent said to Erin that Geni hadn't been trying. 

If that anger had been directed towards her yesterday she was certain she would have been killed. Which made the sickening uneasiness she'd felt since last night make sense. Brushing up close with Geni felt like sidling up to Death. 

She still had a healthy fear of the thing even before all of this had happened and now it was made worse. 

After a few minutes of sitting still on the toilet though reason began to slide in as surely as the discomfort in her buttocks. Hiding and staying scared wasn't really going to help her, was it? Like Ms. Penn had told her soon after they first met, "Life keeps going and you can't just stop living it because you're scared. There's something more out there still waiting for you." That thought helped her breathe more deeply and calm her anxiety, that way she could actually take a moment to relieve herself and go wash her hands and face. 

"Oh. Uh, hi."

"...Hi."

Erin jumped a little when Lyla came through the door right as she stepped out of the stall. There was an awkward quiet as she hesitantly greeted the young woman and crept towards the sink, watching Lyla's cheeks turn a delicate pink and worry her hands together. From the moment she'd seen the woman everything about her seemed delicate; thin fingers, slight frame, and a soft voice. Almost bird-like. Including a sharp face and observant eyes that seemed much older than herself. Erin had to wonder how such a small body supported that endless waterfall of hair. And she couldn't imagine what was going on in her head. 

"I didn't mean to bother you but you were gone a while so I wanted to see if you were okay," Lyla explained shyly. "I know we just met but Annie said we were the only people our age in the program so I just kind of felt like we kind of had our own little group already, if that's not too forward. I wanted to make sure you weren't having too bad a time…"

And she was polite to boot. 

"Are we actually the same age or-" Erin began to ask, wondering if Lyla meant the other part where two Immortals had bodies the same age but they'd actually been born a century apart. Her face was so hard to read and to judge. Erin would have guessed she were at least ten years older. 

"Actually the same. Born 23 years ago, just like you." Lyla giggled, the sound making Erin really smile for the first time in what felt like an age. This last day had felt like a month. 

"Cool. I get that feeling," Erin agreed while she wiped her hands dry, feeling her shoulders finally start to loosen. "I've only been… y'know,  _ like this  _ for a year so it's started to feel like I'd be stuck alone for the rest of forever…" she admitted, completely understanding what Lyla was getting at. 

Being forever grounded in her early 20s was still a concept she was trying to wrap her head around. It made sense when Ms. Penn had told her she was unlikely to ever have shared life experience with anyone her own age anymore but it hadn't quite settled in yet. Reading the obituaries in the paper drove it home though as she watched how many 23 and 24-year-olds died everyday and realized she'd never join them unless an Angel caught up to her. And since no two Immortals were the same it made that coincidence of making friends your own age even more scarce. 

"I hear that." Lyla nodded sagely, offering a hand out to Erin once she seemed to be ready and smiling shyly again. "I've been like this all my life but only just recently got to where I'm meeting more people like me. Ready to come talk it all over?"

Erin nodded, taking Lyla's proferred hand and letting herself be led back to the table where Ms. Penn was waiting with her eyes closed, opening them when the girls returned and took seats again. 

"Hi again, Ms. Penn," Erin said. 

"Welcome back, Ms. Sterling. Feeling better after getting over talking with Genevieve?" Annie asked, her measured gaze seeing all. Hard to sneak anything by this woman so being bluntly honest was always best. 

"Yes and no," Erin replied. "Even though she apologized for yesterday I couldn't tell how serious she was about it. Not to mention she seems  _ crazy.  _ Is she actually okay? I'm not seriously going to be like, mentoring under her or anything, am I?"

"Under Geni?" Annie blurted, blinking rapidly and chuckling darkly. "Heavens no. Her being your superior at your day job is coincidence. I just thought that office would be a good place for you. Which may need to be re-evaluated but we'll get to that. But I think first I need to explain her because she's a very…  _ unique _ person even counting the people around us." 

"No shit, Sherlock…"

Erin immediately cringed when those words slipped out in a mumble, avoiding Annie's sharp eyes until Lyla spoke up. 

"Okay but what about me? I don't mind the explanation because that lady seemed unstable at best but I keep hearing yesterday mentioned and I have no clue what happened yesterday. Do I even want to know?" 

Annie sighed. "Yesterday during that afternoon squall Ms. Sterling was on a work-related drive with Genevieve. They stopped by her apartment to avoid the roads until it passed and were attacked by two Death Angels."

Lyla outright gasped, hands coming to her mouth. Erin wouldn't have thought the girl could get any paler. Then again she wouldn't have thought she herself could get pale at all but when she got back to her apartment last night her dark cheeks had looked ashen and worn out. 

"Ms. Sterling managed to stall one long enough to make it retreat but the other was handled by-"

"Handled?" Erin interrupted, disliking that discrepancy right away. "She  _ ate  _ it. You told me and probably her too that they can't be stopped, only delayed, but I watched her  _ eat it. _ " 

"Eat it how?" Lyla demanded in shock. 

"Like, she started glowing from the inside and just- just sucked it in like a vacuum. When she did it too I could kind of see inside where it stabbed her too. She was  _ hollow,  _ Ms. Penn. I've never heard of someone being hollow before."

"As I said-" Annie interjected strongly, leaving Erin to frown while Lyla mouthed key words to herself in disbelief. "Geni is unique. Not just in personality. Her existence is unique. I won't share the reasons for her condition as those are very personal but I can tell you a couple of other things about her. The most important one for now is that yes, she  _ can  _ eliminate an Angel. She consumes them and traps them inside herself until they eventually vanish. There is no one else on Earth that we know of capable of that. There  _ are  _ a scant few that can destroy them through some extreme means but none quite like her. As far as her personality goes, much of it can be explained by the fact that she has been alive for a very long time. She is one of the oldest Immortals in the program and one of the oldest that I personally know. I've known her most of  _ my  _ life, to say the least. And, as is my experience, the older someone gets the less predictable their personality becomes. It's nearly impossible to tell what all is going on in her head."

Which said a lot since one of Annie's opening explanations to Erin and probably to Lyla too was that she had lived for nearly seven centuries now. 

"So why isn't she locked up? Aren't there some Immortals that are "Sealed" because they aren't fit to be around normal people? I would definitely think she counts from what I saw just now. And she sounds like she could kill all of us if she had the inclination."

Erin had almost forgotten about that until Lyla mentioned it and now couldn't get the question out of her mind. Why wasn't she Sealed if she was so dangerous and off-kilter?

"Except she can't," Annie replied simply, as if it were an obvious answer. "Her ability doesn't work on anything but Angels. She's been around more Immortals than I could count and that's not to mention who she might've met before I knew her. She can't hurt us any more than an average human could."

"You're sure?" Erin asked. 

"Positive."

"100%?"

"On my life."

Everyone stared at each other for a moment longer before Erin finally broke the tense silence by giggling at Annie's terrible joke. Lyla seemed much more at ease now that she had something to laugh at and Erin noticed a tightness in the woman's brow that she hadn't seen before fade away. Now she could totally see them being the same age. 

"So. The moral of this story is that unless you want to for personal reasons, the only time you'll be meeting Genevieve is if we have another Angel problem. Or in Ms. Sterling's case, at work. Most of the Angels that try to track anyone here though are drawn in by her. They can't help but pay attention to her."

As much as Erin appreciated the fact that she wouldn't have to deal with Geni outside of a professional environment though, Ms. Penn's bit at the end did create a small nagging sensation in the back of her mind. Angels were not only Geni's personal problem, they actively sought her out over the numerous other Immortals in the city. 

The thought made her stomach clench uncomfortably at the very idea. 

"Alright. Cool… I guess. Sooo what do we do now?" Erin looked between her two companions expectantly, wondering where the conversation was meant to go next now that the heavy stuff was explained. 

"Whatever you want," Annie replied. "This was meant to be an introduction for the two of you to begin with. Walter can make some food or we can drink and talk. All up to you two."

"I don't drink."

"I don't drink."

Erin wasn't sure she'd ever had a mimicry moment like that with someone before and laughed in unison with Lyla as they launched into talks of what to eat and what they did for work. The tension in her shoulders finally bled out completely and she slumped in her chair with a sigh of relief. Maybe she hadn't gotten every answer today but she'd gotten enough. 

And maybe a new friend too. 


	4. Chapter 4

"Take a ride?  _ Excuse _ you. Since when do you order me around?"

"Since never. It's just a suggestion."

The fact that Vincent still had his hand around Geni's wrist said otherwise and she curled her lips into a snarl, continuing to try in vain to break his grasp. Not counting the unnatural strength of his frigid fingers that kept her outside with him his smirk was enough to make her blood boil. 

"Why would I  _ ever  _ want to take a ride with you? We were in the middle of a conversation to begin with and I've never once expressed any interest in your childish shenanigans. Let me go."

Everything about Vincent that she'd ever known was childish. Never-ending back-talk and sass. A hedonistic lifestyle of wandering the country answering to no one but himself. No sense of responsibility. Ridiculous video game and rock band clothing. Unprofessional tattoos and heavily pierced ears. No respect for authority of any kind. She'd known him for literal decades at this point and he had never changed. Never matured. 

"Ehhh. I figured you'd say something like that." He shrugged and reached into a jacket pocket for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, lighting up one-handed so he never had to let Geni free and taking a slow pull while he watched a helicopter pass by far overhead. "Gotta have some excuse to make you leave those kids alone though."

Despite her annoyance with him that gave her pause and she stopped pulling away from him to give him a searching look. 

"Why?"

" _ Why?  _ You do realize what you're doing to them, right?"

Geni frowned, puzzling over Vincent's suddenly blank stare until he sighed, long and exasperated. 

What was that supposed to mean? All she had been doing was the same thing she had been doing for years. Something he had been present for numerous times. Explaining the harsh realities of life everlasting to these newcomers who clearly didn't understand what they were getting into and giving them a safe space to come to. Even if that meant being an unwilling guardian on their behalf. 

"Geni," he started, rolling his eyes when she glared harder at the familiarity of the nickname, " _ Genevieve _ . If you really don't realize what you're doing anymore then I think you should maybe do some hard thinking at home on it. I know Annie doesn't always handle everyone the best but it's definitely better than scaring some random kid-"

"Scaring?" Geni snapped. "I'm just giving her straight facts. It's better than hitting her with a softened book the way Annie does. She doesn't prepare them for the truth of life like this, especially when they're as green as Sterling. Besides that, you've seen me do this before plenty of times so what makes now any different?"

"It's different now because you're getting worse," Vincent stated flatly. "The way  _ you  _ look at life is  _ not  _ the same way everyone else looks at it. You think after this long of seeing you talk to new Immortals I don't see the way you treat them? You say sorry and play like you're the real superior here but you don't sound like you care anymore. You used to mean it. Now you're making it out like living forever is the worst curse imaginable. When was the last time you actually waited to see if Annie's way actually worked for preparing people instead of yanking the rug out from under her? Even better, when was the last time you actually gave enough of a damn to try and pretend like you cared about someone? Annie and the rest of us are trying to show these people that they can still make the best of life even if they can't share it with the people they used to. But you sure as hell don't sound like you care one way or the other what happens to those girls in there. And yeah, I heard about the Angel incident, so don't try to say I don't know what's going on. Your experiences stuck riding the line all the time are  _ not  _ universal and it sounds to me like you've totally forgotten that."

Vincent's anger at her seemed to grow the more he talked even though he never did more than maintain his loose shackle on her wrist so that she had to stay and listen. His words were a more effective hold than his hand at this point though. She grimaced when he finally let up with an expectant look, as if waiting for her rebuttal. The problem was that she didn't have one. He kept waiting though, watching her squirm uncomfortably. 

"Fine. You've got me. What do you  _ want,  _ Vincent?" she finally asked, giving her arm another faint tug and blinking in surprise when he finally let her hand loose. She rubbed at her wrist automatically, annoyed with how cool her skin felt after prolonged contact with Vincent's. "If you've got me figured out so well then why are we doing this? Just to lecture me on why I  _ should  _ give a damn about anyone? If you want the  _ fucking _ honest truth I don't see how it makes a difference, especially when it comes to Immortals. They'll outlast everything around them and be just as stuck as me and you. And besides that, why do you  _ care _ ? You know I'm right. And besides that, if you're still in denial, if I'm such a nuisance for being realistic then just tell Annie to put me under lock and key again so I don't bother anyone."

Vincent grimaced, taking a long pull on his cigarette and speaking with a mouth full of smoke in a somber voice that she hadn't thought he was capable of. "Because I'm tired of watching you kill yourself because of a curse you couldn't stop, Geni. You deserve better."

…

…

…

…

  
  


When was the last time someone had looked at her like that? And why did it have to be Vincent? Since when did he care so much? For  _ her _ ? The cynic in her immediately want to doubt him but in all the centuries she'd known him she'd never seen him look at anyone like he was looking at her now. It floored her in a way she hadn't expected. 

But Vincent aside, there was a question that needed answered. One great cosmic injustice to be addressed. If she deserved better then why had she suffered to begin with?

That was the driving force of her anger. Her spite. Time passed slowly and uncaringly ever since she had lost her ability to die by any natural means. A boon to those that wished for more time with their loved ones or wanted to achieve more than others. But it was something she had never asked for. To her it had only been a fitting conclusion to believe that consorting with "normal" life was futile at best. Sure, there were others that shared something of this existence but what was the point? Most of them chose it. And even so, when enough time passed she had seen them grow into the same belief as her. When you couldn't die for real you had to die in some way eventually. And if it was by drowning in her own emotions, what did it matter?

So Geni watched him mulishly, fighting the way her gut twisted while he took drags off his cancer stick with a forlorn expression, waiting for her to reply. 

"What's wrong with you, Vincent?" she asked, glaring when he chuckled humorlessly and crossing her thin arms over her chest. "No, seriously. Why? If I'm such a bother then why should you care? Just leave me be so I don't infect your precious baby Immortals with my presence. Push me away. Do you want to drag yourself down with me? I wouldn't think a relative of Dracula would be so sentimental or stupid."

"Oh, nuh-uh. You clearly don't get my family then," Vincent said. "Grandpa's the biggest softie I know and Mom always said I got that from him so do you really think I'm gonna let you keep doing this to yourself after all this time? Why do you think I keep bugging you when I see you?"

"Because you get your rocks off on harassing people like a roach that refuses to die?"

Vincent laughed at the vitriol in her voice, shaking his head and leaning in close with a mouthful of smoke that was promptly blown right into her face. "Nope. Guess aga-"

Geni had to admit that it was very satisfying to have such easy access to nailing Vincent right in the gut with her bony fist, watching him double up as she caught him mid-sentence. Less satisfying when he immediately started laughing about it. He sounded genuinely amused too. She probably hadn't even hit him hard enough to properly hurt him with how obscenely durable he was.

It was to be expected from someone that could walk through a hail of bullets without so much as a scratch she supposed. She had seen him do that before. 

"You never get to see your face like I do, you know that, right?" he asked with a giggle, idly rubbing his stomach. "You may be the Robot Queen to everyone else but to me you're an open book. Have I ever told you that people watching is actually one of my favorite hobbies? My brother got me into it. And I got real good practice at figuring people out when I was a kid since Mom had such a hard time not getting tricked by random salesmen."

She would have remembered if he started babbling about random shit like that. "Of course you haven't told me that before. Why would you-"

"Trick question. I  _ have _ Geni. You just don't listen," Vincent interjected with a new sad smile. "I try to talk to you all the time. But you don't pay attention because you don't let anyone in. Even someone you've known for ages."

"I may not have known Annie as long as I've known you but the difference there is she and I still go out to dinner once a month, Vincent. I know her plenty well." Geni returned slowly, though as soon as the words left her mouth she was a lot less sure.

"Yeah? I get lunch with her pretty often too if you wanna go that way. You know why? Because I help her cart new kids around about 40 times a week so they have a chance at a normal life. We talk about a lot. She likes to watch old romances with her platonic partner and his partner. They critique them based on how corny they are. Did you know she's been breaking her own rules and volunteering at the same soup kitchen in the Bronx for the last 30 years even though she looks exactly the same? Or that she still visits the graves of the kids that get snatched by Angels for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Vincent sighed heavily while Geni clamped her jaw shut again, reaching a hand out to her before reconsidering and scratching at his head. "Y'know, I bug you because it makes you look like you're actually living," he explained, turning to walk over to his bike and lean against the seat. "The way I figure, even if you hate me for it, I'd rather keep you occupied getting pissed at me over hating yourself." He flicked his unfinished cigarette to the ground and gave it a vicious stomp, looking vaguely sheepish for the slight indent he left in the concrete. "Ahh, I wasn't even planning on saying all this… I was honestly just planning on getting you good and riled up so I could convince you to actually take a ride with me to prove me wrong or some shit. Or just fight me. Either of those sound good? Or do you just want me to fuck off forever? Because the long and short of all this is that I wanna help you get better and stop burning yourself out. But if you don't want me to and you're honestly content to fuck it all up, lemme know now. This's as good a time as any, really."

This rollercoaster ride was starting to make Geni feel ill. 

What kind of confession was this supposed to be? Or was it an intervention? Both? Neither? Had she ever stared down a crossroads like this? Vincent had brought her out to the woods and suddenly asked her to guide them out without a map.

Everything she dealt with day-to-day normally had a clear, cut and dry reply. A steady pace. She made it that way on purpose. When each thing had its place, it could always be put back. When each person did as they were told, their problems sorted themselves out. When each day had the same schedule and the same conclusion, any fear of the future abated. 

She looked over Vincent's outstretched hand, suddenly very conscious of the expression on her face. What did she look like? Did she look as confused as she felt? As angry as she wanted to be? As lost as a child even though she refused to be a child anymore?

No matter how she contorted her face right now nothing felt appropriate and she realized she must look like a loon, screwing her face up without saying a word. Vincent didn't seem to care. Just as he'd admitted to he was just patiently watching her. He looked like a painting. Or maybe a photograph. Dragon tattoos and metal bars and studs poked through his ears didn't fit the classic feeling of a painting. And with his red eyes someone not in the know might think he would never show up in a photograph. But he was picturesque nonetheless and his rapt attention on her felt unearthly and strange. 

"...I really don't understand what you're wanting to get at here…" she started haltingly, taking a hesitant step closer. The clack of her high-heeled foot on the cement seemed unnaturally loud. "But I don't hate you as much as you think… You're annoying but- you've never lied to me before. I just don't think you've ever been this- honest with me. Let's go for a ride, I guess. Where are we going?"

Geni jumped when Vincent finally smiled for real again, reminding her of an eager puppy as he took her hand and pulled her close so he could throw an arm over her shoulders. "That's the great thing about riding, Geni. Who needs a destination?"

_ "Would you fucking slow down already?!" _

Why had she agreed to this. She had seen Vincent drive before. Even in a car he pushed every speed limit, flying through traffic with just enough care for those around him to not cause an accident. But not enough to avoid close calls. His insane reflexes would keep him on top of anything that could happen but it still made for a terrifying passenger experience. 

On a motorcycle he was worse. 

Vincent just laughed into the overpowering wind while Geni screeched in his ear, gunning the accelerator harder and bypassing everyone around them at nearly twice the legal limit. This stretch of upper highway wasn't as cramped as it could have been since they were here after the biggest rush hour of the day but there was enough that evasive action was needed. But he just drifted through it all with the easy confidence of a figure skater on the ice, going wherever he needed to. Even if that somewhere was between vehicles pacing each other down the road or right along the edge of the shoulder. 

Geni looked over at one of the many SUVs they'd overtaken with wide eyes when it happened once, catching a glimpse of an angry and shocked mother with her kids in the backseat. Shrieking obscenities at Vincent out her window for his reckless routing. Not that he would hear them with how fast he zoomed by. 

"I'm serious! You're going to get someone killed! How fast are you- 160?! You're insane!" Geni screamed herself, though it wasn't as if she dared smack him like she normally would. She just clung harder to his waist and buried her face in his leathers. She didn't dare peek over his shoulder again to see if he would push it more

"160 is nothing! This baby can break 250 easy!" he shouted gleefully, his words nearly eaten up by the wind as another car horn faded instantly behind them. "The rush is one of the best parts!"

Geni wasn't sure she agreed. She had long since proved that nothing of this Earth could kill her but that didn't mean she took risks. She enjoyed a quiet dinner or a book in bed during her free time. Speeding towards city limits at breakneck speed like this was hardly her idea of a good time, even if it was technically just as safe as the alternatives. If going this way was their goal then she would have much rather done it at a much more sedate pace. There was hardly even time to watch any city sights go by unless it was something far away. Everything else passed by in a wicked blur that had her reeling and clutching Vincent's jacket until her knuckles turned white. Which was why she stopped looking around. 

A thought to consider here though was if Vincent was doing this to force her into thinking about their conversation. If so, it was kind of working. With nothing to do but hold on and hope he slowed down she was left with her own thoughts. Beyond the rumbling engine and the roaring wind that soon came to be the only sounds around them there was nothing to do but think. Not that it helped her get anywhere. Not when she couldn't understand the appeal behind this whole exercise. 

"You don't have to hide, y'know. There's no one to yell anymore," Vincent called over his shoulder after a long bout of silence. 

"They wouldn't have yelled in the first place if you didn't drive like a maniac," Geni complained into his jacket, leaving her head down in stubborn defiance. 

"Gotta go fast if you want out of traffic before we miss what we came for."

"I thought we were driving for the sake of it. Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"We are. But we also came to see this."

" _ This _ being what?" She was starting to get peeved with his contradictory answers again. 

"Like I said. If you'd  _ look  _ you'd see, ya mole. Get your head out of the dirt."

Whatever response she'd been about to pull went unsaid as her eyes snapped up to look around. She panned slowly from side to side with her mouth slightly agape. 

The sun hovered low in the sky, a perfect sphere of burning oranges and reds that cast it's colors through the sky and the wispy clouds to mix with the coming violets and blue-blacks of the encroaching twilight. Those lights and shadows danced over the farmlands and pockets of trees they raced by, sometimes revealing otherworldly faces and flashes of magic from the Fae that snuck around, winking her way with shocking clarity despite their speed. Some form of ethereal, wispy creature with the vague outline of a bird-like thing coasted through their slipstreams, soon joined by others until a small flock nipped at their heels. Their presence spooked the small beings dwelling by the signs and markers next to the highway, putting wary eyes on them until they were well beyond their tiny homes before returning to slumber. 

Every little bit more distance traveled revealed something new making itself known. Maybe it was Vincent drawing them out. Maybe it was the inexplicable lack of other vehicles on this endless stretch of asphalt. And while Geni could name many of the things she saw there were so many more she couldn't. Yet for some reason her voice caught when she considered asking Vincent about them, as if for some fear she couldn't name. Maybe a fear of searching for a name for whatever she was feeling right now. 

"Pretty beautiful innit?"

Geni glanced up at his face for the first time since getting on the bike only to find his eyes fixed solely on her. She broke away before they could completely lock gazes, unwilling to explain to him or even herself why and instead laid her head on his back to keep watching and see what showed itself next. 

"Yes…"


	5. Chapter 5

Thankfully for Erin once Geni left The Last Call she didn't see her again that night. Erin sat there talking with Lyla and Annie for a long time, finally accepting a ride home when the moon was at its apex in the night sky. Strangely when they bid Walter goodnight and left for Annie's car they spotted Geni's sleek coupe still sitting in the lot patiently awaiting its owner's return. Annie let out a single bark of laughter upon seeing it but didn't elaborate so Erin was left to wonder about it on the ride home. 

And then the weekend passed and the dreaded return to the grindstone appeared. 

She did have to drag herself rather unwillingly from the comfort of her bedspread to hastily throw some makeup and lotion on since the office would have no sympathy if she were late. But she made it without incident on her own power, happy to be driving her own car again instead of being carted around. And for the first half of the day she kept herself busy. After the big announcement they'd been left on last week she had a lot of learning to do and Bailey had so much stuff to throw at her that she couldn't help but get drawn into the frenetic rush of a Monday. There were new forms to learn, new filing systems to memorize, introductions to departments she hadn't had contact with yet, and so much more. The day up until lunch passed in a blur that paused for barely a second before she had to scarf her food down as fast as possible and get right back to it. 

Meanwhile, Geni was so much further up the office chain than her that she didn't even see her from a distance. Not until the last hour of the day. And even then…

"Sharp. Sterling."

"Yes'm?" Bailey asked, a memo pad materializing from seemingly nothing in her hands.

"Log this exceptions report before you go. Make sure you reference the new codes to mark down the correct lines with the new syntax. Submit that to the review team for check off. Copy myself, Johannson, and Marron on that email. I'll have three new caseloads for you to process first thing tomorrow morning." 

"Yes, ma'am. You got it, lady!" Bailey returned cheerfully, speedily jotting down notes before swinging back around to their (currently) shared desk. 

Erin wondered why Geni paused before swinging around like she clearly intended to do until she felt that hawk-eyed gaze fall on her. "Questions, Sterling? Or are you looking to try a frog's diet with that look?"

She snapped her mouth shut while Bailey snickered at her expense, shaking her head mutely and bearing Geni's bored stare until the woman turned around and clacked her away back towards her office. 

"Don't take it too hard, Erin. It takes everyone a while to get used to her." Bailey grinned and motioned for Erin to look back to their shared computer, shaking the paperwork she'd been handed. "Just roll with it and she's easy to get along with. Don't expect to make friends though. She's a frigid one."

"Yeah… I noticed," Erin murmured, sighing and turning to her work once more and letting go of a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. Right back to normal then, she supposed.

And the rest of the week followed suit with more normal, everyday occurrences. The new workload got slowly easier as she learned the new tricks. Geni was still coldly professional on the few occasions Erin saw her, once again acting as if there were no connection between them besides upper management versus entry level employees. So it got easier to relax and pretend that she was living a normal life without having to worry about anything.

Once the next weekend rolled around things felt even better because she had plans to grab lunch with Lyla. It had been a while since she'd been able to enjoy a lunch date with a friend. She'd certainly been denied the opportunity this last year anyway before entering the program. 

So of course she was early. But that meant she could grab a seat on the outside patio of this little sandwich shop while she waited. There was a nice view if you didn't mind the endless traffic but there was a park nearby filled with school-age kids horsing around too and the shrieking of excited children nearby wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It gave her an opportunity to people-watch while she sipped her soda and nibbled the monstrosity of pastrami and veggies she'd bought. While kids were sometimes entertaining to watch with the way they could communicate through a garbled, screaming language that only they understood, it was more interesting to watch the parents. Usually. Today the benches were just filled with what looked like gossip-y soccer moms with trashy magazines in their hands and the kinds of haircuts that made her think of snooty rich people. It was hard to make up stories about what their lives might be like when the only stuff that came to mind was typical first-world domestic complaints. Their husbands don't do the dishes often enough. Their kids made a horrible mess of the dining room wall. The dog pooped on the carpet. Oh my god, did you see what Chelsea across the way did with her yard? I think I might call the home association to see what they'll do about that eyesore. Talk about no taste. 

Even imagining people like that put a bad taste in Erin's mouth and she grimaced as she turned her eyes elsewhere, glancing around aimlessly while she considered if she should get an ice cream after her sandwich. She did furtively check around to make sure no one was looking back at her just like she'd been checking out others, but that was just her paranoia she was pretty sure. 

"Heeeey! Sorry I'm late!" 

"Hey, girl! It's no biggie! It's nice out for once, so." Erin waved a hand vaguely at the cloudless sky. She'd been enjoying the distinct lack of humidity today and the occasional breeze that passed through under her table's big stripe-y umbrella. 

"Oh my gosh, right? That's gotta be some kind of miracle after all the stupid rain," Lyla gushed, grinning as she dashed into the seat across from Erin's and snatched up the menu left there for her. She checked around them to see if anyone else was on the patio before saying more. "Honestly it's the reason I took so long to get here… The sun looked so pretty today I just  _ needed _ to go flying for a bit. I got caught up in it and lost track of time."

When the two of them had talked at the bar they had exchanged numbers so they could message each other freely since they had difficult schedules to work with. Between Erin's office hours and the late evenings Lyla pulled at the daycare she worked at it was never going to be easy to meet up and hang out. But they had gotten to chatting late at night or before dawn when they were both free and Erin had learned a fair bit about her new friend. 

Lyla was a Phoenix. She'd been born one, so she'd lived her whole life as an Immortal. Except she hadn't known it until she died to a drunk driver while walking home from an especially late day at work. And then got woken up from a pile of ashes after the drunkard called the authorities because the girl he hit with his car burst into flames. That was how she'd gotten acquainted with Annie and been entered into the protection program so the incident could get covered up before people found out about her. 

Since then she'd learned a lot about herself. Not only would she recover from any death within a matter of minutes via a sudden conflagration and rise from her own ashes, she could also take a form befitting her origins and fly through the sky on wings of flame. Which even sounded thrilling to Erin who abhorred heights. 

She still lived with her parents in her childhood home, though she at least traveled to and from work a little more safely now with her new car that the program had helped pay for. It had been a little difficult to explain to her family how a daycare job had helped pay for a brand new vehicle but Annie provided receipts from where she'd "won the lottery".

Many of the entrants, like Erin, were helped enough to get an easy in to a new job, kind of like a witness protection program, but since Lyla loved the kids at her job and had thus far kept her new identity a secret she could keep most of her old life. 

"But you still don't tan? Even all the way up there?" Erin leaned in with a smirk. 

"Shush you." Lyla flicked Erin's nose, getting them both laughing. "Giving myself  _ just _ wings is still really hard though. I can go full bird in two seconds flat but trying to pick one part is like giving myself the flu."

"Ew. Wait, can you actually get sick with the flu?" If Lyla recovered as quickly as she did from death then sickness should be a non-issue. 

Lyla laughed and shrugged. "I don't think so. I've never actually had it before so I can't say. I just know what it's supposed to be like. I got little cuts and stuff when I was little from messing around but no one must've noticed me healing weird from them."

"You would've known what you were growing up then, yeah," Erin said. She went quiet while a server stepped outside with Lyla's drink, sandwich, and cookie platter she'd ordered from her phone, wondering if Lyla would ask her about herself again. 

"Yeah. What about you though?" And it sounded like she was of course, making Erin's shoulders tense up. "You said you've only been 'like this' for a year, right? Ever get the flu or anything?" 

She breathed a sigh of relief at not being asked about her immortality. Talking about her childhood would be nothing next to that. "I got really sick and puked a few times after eating crappy school lunches, if you count that." That got a snicker. "Besides that, not really. Lots of sniffles and sneezes during the winter. And I used to have really bad spring allergies but they've gone away now. I broke my wrist once going skateboarding though. There's a couple gross scars left from where I scraped my hand on the road."

"Ooh, let me see! I don't have any scars so scars are cool!"

Erin held her hand out for inspection with a chuckle, letting Lyla feel over the strange bumps of scar tissue on her palms. "Everyone says it's hard to see but-"

"Why? I can see them just fine- Ohh. It's because of your darker skin. Assholes." Erin blinked at the unexpected swear out of Lyla's mouth. "People could just admit they're racists instead of pretending they can't see something plain as day. It's like tattoo artists complaining that darker skin is harder to work on. Bunch of bullshit." 

"I mean, you're not wrong," Erin admitted with a shrug. She understood it perfectly well and wasn't interested in making it a conversation but Lyla's immediate understanding without being told put a smile on her face. She still gently steered the conversation in a different direction though. "Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo? I've kind of always wanted a little kitty on my shoulder."

"Don't laugh, but I used to want to get a back tattoo… of a phoenix."

How could she not laugh at that? Luckily Lyla wasn't too offended and they spent the next hour talking about tattoos, art styles, before somehow segueing into a long-winded conversation about star signs and how ridiculous they were. 

Talking with Lyla was easy and being able to relax and enjoy herself in the sun like this was helping her calm down enough to where she started to nod off with her head on their table. Lyla didn't seem to mind and kept up conversation as long as she responded a little bit. Which was made easier as they transitioned to music and started playing songs on their phones. It made for quiet moments that made Erin smile and feel almost normal again. 

Then out of nowhere a tremendously loud whining engine started to echo from down the street, startling her awake and pulling her head around. A sports car? Motorcycle? Whatever it was it had to be really tearing through to be so noisy. "Oh come on! Why is that so  _ loud _ ?! Besides, you're not going anywhere if you're going that fast anyway! It's rush hour!"

"New York though," Lyla unhelpfully supplied. "Some people just don't care…" She narrowed her eyes as the sound got closer, fixating on the road until its source came roaring around a corner and down the café's street. "Like Vincent apparently. What a maniac..."

"What?! How do you know that's Vincent?" Erin demanded. She could see the vehicle, a sleek black motorcycle with glowing red lines across its sides, but she couldn't make out the rider's face this far away. She would be able to soon with their speed though. 

"I have strong eyes." Lyla shrugged, returning to her cookies. She seemed irritated by the noise but determined to ignore it. Maybe annoyed by the fact that it was someone she knew making it. 

Erin turned her eyes back to the street, waiting the short minute it took for the rider to get close enough to make out their face. And it turned out it really was Vincent in his same leather jacket and sparkly ears, weaving between cars at ludicrous speeds compared to the statue-like bumper to bumper traffic. How he wasn't crashing and burning was completely beyond her. 

He was gone as quickly as he came though, turning sharply past the café's corner spot and zooming into the distance. 

"Holy shit…" Erin murmured. Her head was pounding after that onslaught of noise. 

"No kidding. That was… I don't have a word for it except obnoxious," Lyla agreed. 

"Well, Obnoxious  _ is  _ my middle name."

Both girls shrieked in unison as the unexpected voice sounded right next to them. Erin whipped around to see Vincent somehow sitting at the closest vacant table, a pack of cigarettes and a coffee at his side. He was laughing at their expense already too, a smirk on his face while Lyla coughed up the soda she'd inhaled in her surprise. 

"How the hell did you- What-  _ How _ ?!" Erin sputtered at him, occupied with handing Lyla napkins to clean herself with. "You were-"

"Coming up the stairs a few seconds ago to come see you guys. I spotted you from the road." How could he have possibly gone around the corner, gone further down the road  _ away  _ from the café, and then appeared here? "I'm fast, Erin. Better get used to it."

Erin felt a strange breeze whip around her and after she blinked Vincent had Lyla's cookie tray in his hand with a mouthful of chocolate chips already. 

"Hey! I was saving those!" Lyla reached out and snatched her treats back with a confused glare. Erin was trying to figure out how he had gotten them too. Could he really move so fast that she couldn't see him? 

"Too bad, so sad. This one's mine now," Vincent said. He made a point of moaning and groaning while he slowly chewed his contraband, scaring away an older couple that looked offended at his antics and decided to sit inside instead of out on the patio near their group. 

"...Didn't you say you're a vampire? Won't that make you sick?" Erin asked, under the impression that vampires could only subsist on blood. A belief that Lyla seemed to share going by the perplexed look on her face when it was pointed out. 

"Nah, not me. Exception to every rule. I can eat anything you can." Vincent made a vague motion in Lyla's direction before giving Erin an odd look that she couldn't parse. Like he was watching her under a microscope. And then the look was gone and his casually mischievous look reappeared. "Unless you've got some special diet I don't know about," he amended. "Never did hear from Annie what you're like, Erin. What's your shtick if you don't mind my asking?"

Erin kind of did mind him asking. Out of nowhere no less. It wasn't a topic she wanted to cover. Certainly not in public. She couldn't decide why she thought Vincent would want to know either. He was such a strange person and he'd only seemed stranger in retrospect after he had left the bar the other day with Geni. This wasn't helping that impression. 

"I really don't think that's something we should talk about in the open…" she said slowly. 

"If you want privacy I can do that. No problem."

Vincent loudly snapped his fingers like it was supposed to do something and then sat there with an expectant look on his face. As if he were some TV magician. Nothing happened though. Erin was about to open her mouth again when a worker inside walked over with a sign that read "PATIO CLOSED", set it in front of the doors, and pulled the curtains. And then Lyla insistently tapped her shoulder to point at the road. Every single person walking on their side of the street started to divert away. They were turning around to find the nearest crosswalk and hailing taxis, leaving everything near them but the endless car traffic empty. No one could overhear them now. 

"Better?"

"I think the better question is what are  _ you _ ? What kind of vampire can do  _ that _ ?" Lyla had an unexpectedly hot temper for someone so shy and polite. She'd been nothing but respectful and kind in every conversation the past week. Except for the one where they started talking about politics and Erin realized how righteously furious the tiny woman could get. And in person it felt like the air around her warmed with her anger. "I never once heard your name mentioned before I met you last week but now you come around like some big shot, throwing Ms. Penn's name around like you're childhood friends and being just generally ridiculous! What gives,  _ Vince _ ?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there Birdy. Don't get your feathers in a bunch over a question I asked someone else-" Vincent did seem to reconsider his words when Lyla's eyes shifted from their usual cool green to a blazing orange and stood from his chair with a sigh. He dropped into a sudden bow of all things, though it was clearly a sarcastic maneuver as he folded an arm over his front like a butler of some sort. But Lyla visibly hesitated, giving an in to reply. "My full name is Vincent Marcus Miazga, son of Marcus Miazga and Elizabeth Corinne Tepes, daughter to Vlad Tepes III. The last name is the important one. Ring any bells?"

Except it didn't. Erin and Lyla looked at each other in equal confusion and Erin spoke out when Vincent sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. 

"How is that supposed to help? You were born how many centuries ago? Why would we know ancient genealogies like that?" she asked, peeved by his obvious annoyance. 

"Why you gotta make me sound like an old man though, dude…" Vincent complained, taking a long drag off of his cigarette that had burnt to the base while he neglected it. "I'd like to think kids still paid attention in history classes, especially since they're a metric  _ fuckton  _ better than they were when I went. Vlad Tepes III equals Vlad the Impaler, girls. Dracula. The big bad vampire. One of the OGs. Old Bram didn't get his inspiration from nowhere, y'know."

"You- You got turned into a vampire by  _ Dracula _ ?" Erin asked, squeaking in surprise when Vincent was suddenly leaning over her and wiggling her ear between his fingers.

"No. Dracula is my  _ grandpa _ , dork. You've got these things called ears. You should use them," he laughed, easily dodging her hands as she tried to bat him away. 

"How is  _ that  _ possible?" Lyla put herself between Erin and Vincent with a glare. "Vampires can't procreate."

Vincent snapped his fingers again and materialized a pair of glasses that he perched low on his face, affecting a haughty pose and an exaggerated teaching voice. "You sure? Who told you that? The easy answer is- ding, ding! No one. That's something you learned from a story. And y'know what we say about stories? Fake. Imaginary. Flights of fancy. There's bits of truth here and there but that's almost always guesswork. Same with stories about vampures. People didn't want to believe that a vampire could be pure enough to be almost human except unkillable. They wanted to think vampires are monsters they can hunt and be rid of, just like anything else unnatural and eternal. Like a fire bird that'll die if you kill it enough times or a monk that lives on mountain dew and good intentions but can still lose their head. So they made up stories. The honest truth isn't too far off though. Most vampires  _ can  _ be killed. All because there were so many vampires that came before them that their power got diluted down. Like they dumped a dinky little bag of sugar in a lake. Comparing me, someone that inherited that original power from birth, to someone that got turned two years ago? It's like putting pure wolf next to a pug. Or a dinosaur next to a chicken. There ya go. Vampire Biz 101, kiddos. I know for a fact Annie told you guys there's more to people like us than meets the eye but that's a perfect example."

Erin could practically hear the gears in Lyla's head cranking and gently took her hand to pull her back to a chair while the glasses vanished from Vincent's face to showcase his brilliant crimson eyes once more. And she watched him curiously while he lit a new cigarette and traded his coffee for a can of beer out of the messenger bag she'd overlooked at his feet. While Lyla was just plain flabbergasted by all this, Erin had been ravenously consuming this information, sorting and filing it all. Vincent was rude and crude but she got the sudden sense that he was much sharper and more knowledgeable than his public face indicated and that helped her finally move past her shock. But there was something she wanted to hear still before she did any confiding. 

"So how come you don't just make people tell you what you want to know? If you're so strong you should be able to do that easy, right? How come you don't just… become a god?" she asked, watching him carefully. And the first thing she spotted was his eyes tightening even though he smiled right through it. 

"I can," he replied simply. "But what's the fun in that?"

Silence reigned despite the world still moving as normal around them. As if the idling engines and honking horns existed behind an impenetrable wall. Erin had to wonder if maybe this was why Vincent had no regard for normal rules like traffic laws or "common decency". Maybe it was because he had been so far removed from everyone else for so long that he just didn't see them anymore. Being around him made everything else feel much less real. 

"...So did you want to know about me because you thought it would be entertaining?" An oddly perverse sense of amusement caught Erin when she saw that she actually managed to startle the vampire for a brief moment, long enough for Lyla to jump in. 

"Didn't you say you didn't want to talk about it, Erin? I thought you said some bad stuff happened," she asked in concern, recalling their long late-night talks where the subject had been brushed over but never addressed. 

"And that's totally cool if you don't want to." Vincent amended his earlier question with a hand out to stave off Lyla's anger before she redirected to him for overstepping. "I get curious when people hide that because it's something we all have in common. Sometimes it's because they're embarrassed or sometimes it's 'cause they went through nasty shit. I just wanted to see how you're holding up with it. Not everyone manages real well even if they have a good poker face."

"How's mine?" Erin asked, curious what he thought. She supposed he would have seen quite a few poker faces over the centuries...

"Pretty garbage honestly." A fanged smile. "But you seriously don't have to talk. I'll never make you but I wantcha to know I'm here if you guys ever wanna talk, need a place to hide, anything. I'm always available and I've seen a few things so not much scares me off."

Erin slumped into her chair and pulled Lyla back one more time. Luckily her friend finally seemed to be trusting Vincent a little more and her defensive stance had relaxed. Her face was pensive and her eyes cooled to green once more.

But Erin was actively looking between the two of them, leaning more into the idea of confiding in them now. Maybe she didn't know them the best in the world. But maybe this would be a good opportunity to change that.

"I think I can talk about it if it's you two." Erin made a point of examining her nails while she talked. She especially liked the way the sun bounced off of the silvery paint on them and the way that contrasted against her skin. It was easier to watch than their expressions. "To be honest I don't know what I am. Ms. Penn doesn't either. All I know is that I don't die, just like you. If I get hurt, my heart beats harder and makes more blood. And if I keep getting hurt it beats  _ harder  _ and makes  _ more  _ blood. It'll beat until it makes my veins break open. But even if that happens I'm still okay. I stop feeling pain and I can do things I normally can't. I wasn't born this way though. I was made to be this way a little over a year ago."

"How?" Lyla had an arm around her shoulders, seeming to sense the fear she still felt about her own body and the things it was capable of now. But unlike Lyla she had no name to put to this to help her understand. No story to compare herself to like Vincent's. 

"My family."

_ Erin Sterling. _

The chill of a Death Angel coming close was near indescribable. It prefaced the journey to that other side and brought it to the living world. It pricked up one's spine and settled into a fog of dread. It weighed heavily on the shoulders. Nausea pooled. Bile rose. The skies darkened but only for those near death, not the true living. They saw clearly through the haze while Erin and Lyla cowered beneath a merciless inevitability that abruptly came for them once more; their one vulnerability that came to claim their lives. 

_ And there were three.  _

"Getdownnow!" 

But Vincent could see. And act. His body shielded theirs and the darkness tinged red with his righteous anger. His hands could grasp the ethereal and ripped the first Angel to shreds. His shrieks rent the air and the untouchable second with it. But not without cost. His arms shattered into pieces from the elbow down. His eyes and mouth bled freely as he faced the third. 

Erin still couldn't comprehend why something so inevitable as Death could fail to forgive the existence of someone beyond it. Why would it forcefully hunt those few that challenged it, be it by choice or circumstance? Erin never planned to live forever but it sounded better than dying. Yet now she still had to live with this singular, horrific fear as it relentlessly pursued her, calling her by name and seeking her out wherever she went. 

And she didn't know if Vincent could survive anymore to protect her from it. She was terrified. Her heart beat louder than her thoughts and she could feel her blood pumping, roiling, fighting to keep her heart beating. So she acted with her power that she scarcely grasped. She surrounded their enemy with a scarlet vortex, pushing her life through it until it succumbed to defeat and passed somewhere beyond Death. Its own agonized cries said as much and the finality of the sound resonated so deeply through her that she somehow knew she would never see it again, just as surely as she would never see the ones Vincent destroyed.

If she hadn't seen herself do it, she wouldn't have believed it. She hadn't been capable of that when she was attacked before. So far as she knew. But now she did. And so did her friends who would look at her like a freak. Sure, she was Immortal now, just like them. But she could  _ feel  _ the difference between them. She  _ knew  _ she could never be the same as them. So she backed away, hugging herself as blood followed her path to return to her veins. 

"My parents… they did this to me. Not on purpose. But they did."

And just like her family had hurt themselves for loving her they were hurting the people she in turn got close to. 

Lyla looked shell-shocked. Vincent was kneeling with his eyes screwed shut, the open wounds that had been his arms and hands gushing onto the concrete. 

"Lyla. Call-" Vincent wheezed, hacking still more blood. "Call Annie. Tell her-"

Erin could only wail as Vincent went silent and collapsed. 


	6. Chapter 6

Traffic was an inescapable torture in a city like this one. When hundreds upon thousands upon  _ millions  _ of people lived in and around such a sprawling metropolis there was inevitably going to be too many vehicles on the road when the usual work day ended. Returning home was an endeavor. One that required patience and dogged resilience. 

Or, in Geni's case, a lack of ability to care anymore. She would get home when she got home. No sooner. No later. It wasn't as if anyone awaited her in her empty apartment. And her only hobby could be enjoyed during her car ride since instead of reading a book she could listen to it. A novel concept indeed. So she could relax in her seat and stare vacantly at the green and red lights that dictated everyone's lives while the lines of cars inched forward at the speed of plate tectonics. Which she happened to be re-learning about. The scholars of the world were always learning more about their world and teaching their fellow man about it. She thought it only right to stay informed while she was still here and while the topic could be technically dense and dull at times it was kept interesting by the engaging tones of this new reader she'd stumbled upon a couple days ago. 

Why rush in this scenario?

Especially today when she didn't have to consider getting home before dark. She had time. Putting in hours at the office on the weekend wasn't her idea of fun but she still chose to do it when necessary in order to keep things rolling smoothly. And even when she needed to do it she only ever needed two to three hours to catch up. That still left her with essentially the whole weekend to unwind. 

Even now the hour was only barely approaching noon. Plenty of time to take her time. 

The weather was beautiful enough too that she could drive with the windows down and get a breath of fresh air. Not that she did given the amount of extra noise that would invite in to her space but she was tempted. Maybe beautiful enough to stop somewhere too for a treat of some kind. Treats were a whim that she didn't often indulge but… it felt like a good day to do it without anything pressing to address. Maybe she could pick up a properly roasted coffee and have some sweet pastry in the sunlight. 

_ Who needs a destination? _

Vincent's words echoing through her memory distracted her from the current tangent in her book. She had to snatch her phone to rewind it enough to re-read so she could understand. But regaining focus couldn't be that easy in the end. Not when she'd been thinking about him all week. 

It felt strange to be so fixated on a single person. But after that long argument and the strange motorcycle ride he'd dragged her into it was hard not to be. Especially when he had shown up at her apartment twice since as well. Persistence wasn't a trait she was used to encountering when nearly everyone she knew refused to bring a point to her more than once. Except he hadn't even brought up a single thing they'd talked about. 

Two days after the fact he had come knocking on her door after work to push a magazine with a bookmark into her hands. He'd pestered her until he somehow ended up on her couch and then proceeded to spend a solid two hours prattling about nothing. Literally nothing. She couldn't even recall a single thing he'd talked about aside from asking if she'd eaten that night. The only thing that stuck was how flattered she felt that he came to just talk to her. 

While she wouldn't in a million years admit to him that such an emotion had even crossed her mind she'd come to begrudgingly admit to herself that beyond the shock of knowing that he cared at all, she genuinely appreciated that fact. It still made no sense why he would park himself in her camp. But he had. It wasn't until he'd visited like that that she realized just how long it had been since anyone besides Annie had instigated any interaction with her that wasn't business-related. 

Then he did it a second time as well, just yesterday in fact. He'd come to retrieve his magazine, asking if she'd read through it at all. And she had. She'd been intrigued enough in the reasoning behind the gift that she'd perused its contents wondering what was in it. Opening it, she'd honestly been expecting pictures of scantily-clad women or rock and roll bands touring the country with lots of screaming and alcohol. Instead she'd found- well, there were still some scantily-clad women in it, but it was a motley collection of discussion pieces about puzzles, board games, and video games and their effect on the youth of various generations. Never before had she read something like that, finding the subject unimportant since it was just an interest of people she would never interact with. But then she'd seen through the articles there the long-lasting cultural effects those things had in societies the world over and how they shaped entire governments. Just as simple things like chess had influenced battlefields and wars so too had these many communities of hobbyists been influenced by the peers they found and the changes they believed they could make as a united front. 

And she'd become self-conscious all over again as she realized halfway through their conversation how intently he watched her reactions throughout. 

Angry car horns ripped her away from her brooding. Not meant for her thankfully. But they made her aware of some kind of commotion to the left of the road that had everyone diverting out of their lanes and slowing traffic even more. Unfortunate since there was a local café there she'd noticed a few times and could have stopped at. It had a beautiful patio with a colorful wall of flora to hide those enjoying the weather. She rolled her eyes and looked around for somewhere else to stop; a more mainstream coffee shop sat on the other end of the park to her right. That would work instead. It didn't have a proper patio or a garden but it had a roped off area full of chairs and umbrellas. And while it took some time just to wade through the sea of cars either way it was easier to make a right turn onto a less crowded street than a left into a full disaster zone. 

Ordering a coffee and a small cone of vanilla ice cream didn't take long here. The staff had that look of practiced happiness on their faces but operated like a well-oiled machine, churning out orders as quickly as they came in. Geni wasn't without sympathy for the difficulty of their job and discreetly pushed a large bill into their pitiful tip jar on her way out. 

_ You never get to see your face like I do, you know that, right? _

Of course she didn't. But the years upon years of comments she'd heard about her face? They painted a detailed picture of it. More times than she could count she'd been scouted as a model for her "perfect" skin, courted on account of her "feminine wiles", and subjected to jealous stares. Regardless of the fact that beauty was entirely subjective. The reason nothing ever came of it was because she recognized how pointless noticing such things was. Because no matter how "pretty" she was, no one wanted to associate with a statue. Her eyes were filled to the brim with her desire to be left alone and she projected that willingly. Those compliments came always paired with disparaging remarks about her ugly expressions of rejection and her cold, unfeeling heart. 

Many people had seen her face over the course of her long life and decided they wanted nothing to do with it. 

She'd always seen the way Annie, one of the only people she would consider a friend, had looked at her. Clearly. Without judgment. Accepting her exactly as she was. But at the same time, that was Annie's way. Perpetually kind in a world of hate and envy. 

Annie knew she was an uncaring bitch and involved herself anyway because that was what she did. 

So what about Vincent?

Before he told her, Geni had never realized how much work he did to help Annie in her endless quest to help others. She knew he was always around. But her mental image of him had always likened him to a mosquito. The kind that you caught the barest glimpse of for a second and then heard buzzing and whining just beyond your reach the rest of the night. He was  _ always _ around no matter how much he professed to love the open road and the thrill of riding where no one could weigh you down or hold you back. 

And it only just occurred to her that those two things could never coexist perfectly. Which meant he kept coming back to this place, this city. She didn't know what brought him back, what held him here. Annie? The protection program? The people in need of help? 

...Her?

Thinking back on the way he talked to her, she felt certain that he wasn't helping her for the sake of it. She didn't consider herself conceited or self-centered but she did have confidence in her ability to judge others. He wanted to help her to help  _ her _ , not to help  _ someone… _

It wasn't until she started slurping air through her straw that she realized that she was thinking herself in circles. She couldn't recall the taste of her drink at all. 

"Excuse me? Miss?"

Maybe she should get herself another cup…

"Ma'am? Your ice cream is melting."

Geni startled when fingers snapped for her attention, diving for napkins and finding none within reach. "Shit shit shit-"

"Here. Let me take that. I have napkins."

"I- Thank you."

Once the melting mess was out of her hand it was much easier to clean her fingers before she dripped on her nice suit. Incredible that it hadn't happened already really. She turned as soon as she was clean to thank the stranger at her side, looking up to meet his eyes- and then up some more when she only found a broad chest in a casual suit jacket. 

If she were to point out anyone else that  _ she  _ thought was a model, she would have pointed out this man. 

He wasn't just tall, he looked thin and fit without the appearance of a muscle-obsessed bodybuilder. There was a casual confidence in the rise of his shoulders and what she could only describe as pure cheer in his relaxed expression. He was watching the kids in the park across the street play while she cleaned up with a fond smile and the most brilliant ocean blue eyes she'd ever seen. They seemed to truly glow in the sun. 

_ Crunch. _

And she was so caught off-guard that she didn't notice he'd polished off her ice cream until he bit into the cone. 

" _ Who told you you could- _ " 

Geni blinked when a new, pristine and untouched cone of ice cream was thrust into her line of sight, accepting it with a bewildered stare. 

"Sorry about that. I thought you might prefer a fresh one and I just got one. Even trade?" he asked with a disarming twinkle in those mesmerizing eyes. He didn't sound even remotely apologetic and bared his teeth in a flashy grin. There was an accent to his English that Geni couldn't place but he spoke again before she could even try. "You should probably go check on your order before someone steals it. More productive than questioning life all by yourself all day. Oh! And maybe check your phone more often too."

"What. What are you even-"

"Order for Genevieve!"

Geni's head whipped around when her name was called, spotting a new cup of coffee with her name in swirling letters on the side. She hadn't even decided if she was going to order a new coffee yet. "Who the hell even are-" She couldn't even finish her question. Not because he somehow stopped her but because her voice met with dead air. The man was gone. 

"Who ordered this? No one messed with it, right?" she demanded of the girl behind the counter. Her question was met with a blank, confused stare. "You did, ma'am. I can certainly take it back and refund you the charge if you don't want it but I promise no one but us has touched it."

"I- No… No, I'll take it…"

Geni slowly walked away, absentmindedly licking her new ice cream before this one melted too and sipping at her coffee. The coffee seemed to be the same order as before and it was quite good… but that didn't matter for long amidst her confusion. She felt like she'd just encountered some sort of cryptid. Everything about that random encounter had been completely baffling. Who was that man? How was he there and gone so quickly without her noticing? How was he able to completely spin her in circles and make that sly comment about her inner monologue so perfectly? Was he a mind reader? An apparition? Hallucination? In all her long life she'd never met anyone like him. 

It wasn't until she was standing by her car after walking her way through that strange conversation that she recalled his comment about checking her phone. She  _ had  _ turned it on silent for the couple of hours she'd been at the office so she could focus and consequently hadn't turned it back on so her book didn't get interrupted. Even now it was just sitting in the cupholder in her car. 

She had enough time to pick it up and see two missed calls from Annie before it rang again. Annie never called more than once unless it was some kind of emergency. 

"Hel-"

"Oh thank goodness you answered." Annie cut her off immediately. "Where on Earth  _ are you _ ? You're not at home and I called the office and they said you left a couple  _ hours  _ ago. Are you  _ okay _ ?"

"...I stopped for a coffee."

It spoke volumes of her behavior of late when Annie went completely silent. How long had it been since she took any amount of time for herself?

"Well I need you back at your house ASAP. We've had a group of Death Angels appear. They've been taken care of but I don't know if more will come."

Geni's stomach dropped and landed somewhere in the sewers. Not "another Death Angel".  _ A group. _ Plural. Multiple. In the same location presumably. How was that possible? Seeing the two that had attacked her and Erin had been strange enough but there  _ were  _ two Immortals there.  _ Angels didn't move in groups.  _

"How many were there? Who took care of them?" There were only so many people that could do that and none that could handle them as effectively as her. 

"There were three," Annie said in a grim tone. "Erin handled one-"  _ Handled?  _ "And Vincent held off the other two. But he's not doing well. Get over here and we can-"

_ Click. _

Never before had Geni felt such vehement anger at the traffic in this city. But rage consumed her as she rolled her window down and bullied her way through the lanes to get home.

" _ Get out of my way! _ "

"Where is he?!"

Geni's roar for understanding as she slammed her apartment door open was met with two high-pitched screams of fright. She immediately rounded on them, spying Erin and Lyla sitting on separate recliners in her living room. Lyla breathed a shaky sigh of relief as soon as Geni met her eyes but Erin pulled the blanket draped over her shoulders tighter to her and avoided Geni's gaze. The girl looked stricken and about ready to faint at any moment. She wasn't going to get any information from them-

"On the couch without a beer. And it's really fuckin' disappointing, lemme tell ya. I thought you stopped somewhere on your way back. No treats?"

And there was Vincent, leisurely spread out on her sofa. His casual pose was ruined by the pinched look of pain on his face though. He had his arms, what was left of them anyway, thrown up over her afghan and she could see bits of corrosion and missing flesh in his eyes and mouth. He looked to be recovering but not quickly. 

"You couldn't even hold a beer right now, imbecile," Annie said, straightening from where she'd been leaning on Geni's kitchen counter. 

"Did you know? The Sumerians of old, as far back as 3,000 B.C.E. used these wondrous, super popular things for drinking beer. They got patented by an American in 1888 for commercial sale and were immensely popular throughout the ages. They're called straws."

Geni wasn't sure if Annie's eyes could roll any harder and heard a choked snort come from Lyla. 

"As you can see Geni," Annie began, meeting her at the door and gently pushing it shut. Geni watched her begin to write on it with her fingers, luminescent golden letters in some ancient language appearing. "He's doing fine, if a little roughed up. You hung up before I could tell you that. There's no need for panic yet."

"I'm not panicking at all," Geni retorted. 

"Then stop holding your breath, stop clenching your teeth, and relax. You're making more tension and we especially don't need that right now."

That explained the tightness she felt in her face and chest. When  _ was  _ the last time she'd taken a proper breath?. All eyes were on her and she could tell but she staunchly avoided looking at anyone while Annie continued sealing her apartment. 

"If anyone is tense right now, it's Sterling. What happened? In full detail." Geni deflected, shucking her shoes and hanging her purse on the wall, composing herself so she could turn with her usual impassive expression. "Well?"

"Give her a break for a bit, Geni. She's still freaked." Vincent speaking up in Erin's stead surprised her. A closer look at the girl and she realized that Erin's eyes were screwed shut and her teeth had almost gone straight through her bottom lip. Lyla was trying to help her stay calm it seemed but despite her own brave front she looked distinctly not okay. 

"Then  _ you  _ tell me what happened. Annie said there were Angels. Three of them?" Geni looked to Vincent instead, catching a glimpse of a grimace.

She was pretty sure she had some wine left deep on her pantry…

"Three," he confirmed in a dark voice. "No warning either. They came all at once and  _ only  _ targeted Erin. It's been a while since I've seen one get so fixated. If I didn't put myself between her and them I seriously don't know what would've happened. It's like they didn't even see me even though I sent two of 'em crawling back to their holes."

"And the third? I heard she handled the third one. How?" Geni walked over to the couch with two glasses of wine in hand, setting one on the side table within Vincent's reach. And, even though it was disgraceful to see, she had some fluorescent orange straws around and dropped one in his glass. It was hard to ignore the smirk on his face while she did it but she made an effort. 

"Well… I don't know." It was rare to hear such uncertainty in his voice. 

"You don't know," she repeated. 

"Not a clue. All I know is it screamed the same way they do when you deal with them."

Geni looked to Erin again, frowning as her mind crunched through the possibilities. It wasn't unusual for her to be unaware of what brand of Immortal someone new to the program was if they didn't volunteer the information. Normally she wouldn't ask. But asking would be the more effective route. Annie cut her off before she could speak though. 

"Erin has already said in no uncertain terms that she doesn't wish for me to disclose the particulars that I know of her condition-"  _ Condition?  _ "-but I will say that her power is unique and unfamiliar to me. Maybe as unique as yours Geni. I didn't know that she could do that and I don't think she did either. Though, the point remains that she apparently can and did."

**"** And you still refuse to investigate it? If we don't understand it, who can say whether or not it will hurt her? Or us? Or everyone?" 

"She's got a point, Annie," Vincent chimed in. His arms were starting to take shape again and a faint outline where his forearms and hands would soon reappear could be seen as he gestured with them. "I'm the last person to talk about sharing personal details but at the very least  _ Erin  _ deserves to know what she can do. She needs to. I definitely want to know and I can respect her not wanting me to but we can't help her if we don't know why they want her."

Geni could see that she and Vincent were quickly backing Annie into a corner. Even though Annie's number one priority was everyone's safety they both knew that rights to privacy came up as an immediate second in her mind. And normally? That wouldn't be a problem. But with Angels involved on an unprecedented scale there was suddenly much less room for privacy. 

A mousy voice drifted from the depths of the blanket in the chair. "Can't you just put me in a box all by myself that they can't get into?"

"It's possible we could," Annie replied, rubbing her face and smearing her perfect makeup. It was so strange to see a flaw in her immaculate appearance. "But I can't guarantee it would hold forever. If you're determined to stay alive it would be best to find out why they want you so badly instead of depriving yourself of your livelihood. You deserve to live your life too, Erin."

"...Do I?"

"...Everyone out."

Geni pointed imperiously towards the other two rooms of her apartment, staring everyone down until they retreated behind closed doors. She wasn't sure what sort of expression she had on her face that made them so silently comply but she was glad for it. 

Because she wasn't sure what made her say it. 

"This isn't fair…" Erin whispered. "I only ended up this way to  _ live.  _ Not to keep being afraid of dying forever still."

"You really thought it would be that simple?"

That… was the wrong thing to say. 

Geni groaned internally, beating off the urge to clutch her head in frustration. Instead she snatched a box of tissues from the couch's side table and thrust them in Erin's direction. "I hate to break it to you Sterling but it's never that simple. Or fair. The world always has a way of turning on everything you do. Including living. But, if you're motivated to survive, that means you can find a way."

She sat herself on the recliner that Lyla had vacated, sighing heavily. 

"Is that what _you_ have? Motivation to survive?" Erin was tense now, her voice trembling worse than before. "Well your feelings sound as empty as your body because of it. If that's what it takes to stay alive against these things then maybe it would be better to die instead. But I don't _want_ to die. I want to find someone to love forever. I want to keep my friends. I want to live. More than that, _I want to live_ _instead of just surviving like you._ " 

Once upon a time that was all she had room to do. But now Vincent and Erin were opening her eyes to what her push to survive had done to her. 

"I… I don't think I know how to live anymore."

_ What face was she making now? _

Erin's was crusty with tear trails and there was fear painted plain as day on her face. But there was fire in the abyss of her eyes, refusing to fade completely. 

And she remembered now how often her own face was sculpted from stone to suppress that fear. She'd learned how to set her jaw and grit her teeth. Push through. But she must have put the lid on her fire so she could keep that steady pace forward instead of burning out. 

"What if- Then what if I help you learn how to live? Can you help me survive?" 

That… didn't sound like the worst proposal she'd ever heard. But they would need more than that to start. They would need to make a plan. A business model. And that started with information. 

"I'm going to need to know more about you for that to work, Sterling." Geni frowned. 

"If you'll just call me Erin then I will, Ms-" Erin's interjection was cut short by a light laugh. 

"It's Genevieve, Erin. We'll see about 'Geni' later."


	7. Chapter 7

_ Then what if I help you live? Can you help me survive? _

What had compelled her to say that? It sounded so melodramatic. Like a line from the theater. Maybe it was the air of dread hanging over this apartment. The otherworldly flow of this conversation. The hollow look in Geni's eyes. That last one was almost the scariest part. 

_ I don't think I know how to live anymore.  _

Erin had never seen someone look so dead inside in her life. And that included herself. 

She remembered how the goth and emo kids in high school would romanticize the "darkness" in the world. Talk about how knowing the depths of despair and loneliness made them feel truly alive. Ridiculous. A bunch of privileged, well-off children that had never felt hardship once in their life; they lamented their dull existence and made light of all the cruelty and suffering in the world because it couldn't touch them. Even back then Erin had looked loneliness and hopelessness in the eyes. She knew those kids didn't really understand. 

She had always disliked them. But she understood somewhere that they were just ignorant. A blissful life she envied them for. 

Erin had to wonder how long Geni had been deprived of her ignorance to have lost all but her last tiny shred of hope for a fulfilling life. 

Offering a sympathetic hand was the  _ least  _ she could do.

The apartment filled up with the sound of banter again as Geni left to let the others back into the main room. Annie's capable voice. Geni's dry rationality. Vincent's dogged wit. They gave her time to figure out how she was supposed to help someone that had probably been alive longer than her family name. 

"Drinking wine with a straw borders on sacrilege, Vincent. I still don't see how you can live like that."

"Like what?"

"Without a shred of decency."

"Well maybe I  _ like  _ to live like a heathen. Hell's got some dope acoustics for concerts. You might like it if you actually  _ try.  _ I've got some good recommendations that'd even get your head banging."

"I sincerely doubt that."

"Worked on Annie. I bet it'll work on you."

Even Lyla's optimism was coming back when she returned with a giggle on her lips and saw Erin was calmer. "Hey girl. You okay?" 

Erin startled when Lyla reclaimed her former seat and grabbed her hand. "I'm… better. Thanks." She squeezed Lyla's hand gratefully, glad she hadn't left. 

"You sure you don't need some time before you talk about your… family? That's what you're doing next right?" Lyla asked, her brows knitted together in disapproval. 

Oh, right. She needed to do that too. The nerves and that paralyzing fear she'd felt at the café returned for a scant moment but she breathed deep and let Lyla anchor her. She knew no matter what that she would need to say it regardless. She would just have to hope that nothing happened to her friends after she did. 

"...I'm okay. Just deciding how to start. I'm trying to think about it like a crappy essay assignment. Starting it is the hardest part honestly… 'Cause I just don't want to. I know I need to though." Erin pushed an empty laugh out even though it sounded completely fake even to her ears. 

Lyla pondered that a moment and offered a hesitant smile back. "Y'know what my English teacher used to say? Make sure the whole thing is like a girl's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, short enough to keep it interesting, and get it turned in by midnight."

Erin couldn't help but giggle in earnest about that one. She tried not to be too loud so she didn't interrupt the mumbled conversation in the kitchen but she saw Geni and Vincent look over anyway while she clutched her stomach. "You're such an old man," she accused, pushing Lyla's hand away with a smile but letting her take it back right away. 

There was that perfect mix of optimistic humor and great timing that kept Erin feeling more and more at ease the more time passed. It made her feel bad for considering running away in the middle of that panic attack. Her friends weren't giving up on her so she should return the favor in kind. 

"If you need more time to collect yourself we have some time," Geni said from her perch next to Vincent on the couch. She sat straight-backed and regal as always despite his lazy slump against the armrest. "More than anything we just need to know how you got to be this way so we can craft a plan of action. So if you want to eschew the personal details to make it easier that's fine."

"Did you really just say 'eschew' unironically? Whipping out the dictionary to flex?" Vincent snarked. 

"At least I have one so I know the meaning of  _ shut up. _ "

Erin had to laugh at that and noticed even Annie was snickering at Geni's unoriginal comeback. She took one more calming breath while the giggles in the room trailed off. 

"So… My family is responsible for this… sort of. But please don't make it a pity party. I just want to help figure this out."

There was the real silence. 

"When I was little I was diagnosed with cancer. I spent most of my time in the hospital or in bed at home. We kept fighting it but it kept coming back again and again. Daddy worked all the time to make sure me and Momma were taken care of while we were stuck in the house. Not great for my social life but I got homeschooled whenever I started to bounce back and I could go to normal school parts of the year before my next relapse. My friends all lived in the same apartment building so that helped some. When I got partway through middle school was when I finally started to get way better. No more tumors or nausea or anything for a whole two and a half years. I got to go to school the whole time and do sports and everything. 

Saying all of that aloud was a lot more exhausting than she'd expected. The kind of tiring that made her draw inward and try to retreat again. But she still had that grounding grip on her hand and tried to just watch their intertwined fingers while she pressed on. It wasn't a long story by any means. Just filled with things she never wanted to dwell on.

"But right after high school started, it got bad again. It wasn't too bad at first since I was older and a little healthier to start with. I knew how to exercise and tough it out more. But the cancer wouldn't budge anymore and it started to spread. Senior year I was back to the hospital most days and after I was supposed to graduate I was totally stuck there. I honestly don't remember much of those last couple years…"

"But you remember how you became Immortal," Vincent supplied when she trailed off. "You said your family's responsible? What did they do?"

"...Yeah. Right before the doctors thought I'd go for good Mom and Dad took me home to see some people they'd met. They kept talking about making some magic 'miracle' that'd save me but they just needed my parents to agree to a contract. Like they were some kind of demons or something. Daddy never believed in angels or demons but Momma did. She must've convinced him but he didn't look right at all while everyone talked. He worked a  _ lot  _ though so I just thought he was tired."

Erin slowly shucked the blanket she'd made her warm little cocoon out of. She needed to turn around and lift the back of her shirt to bear the freakish runic scrawl embedded in her skin to everyone in the room. The concrete evidence of her story. She hated the feeling of the harsh troughs in her skin. They were her one wound that never healed. 

"For whatever reason they both agreed though, obviously. I couldn't find out what those people did to talk them into it or what that contract said though." Erin shivered, holding her eyes wide open so she didn't have to watch anything on the back of her eyelids. "I know what they did though. They killed themselves. Stabbed each other in the heart and bled out on the floor. But their blood came up by itself and went  _ in me _ ... and that's the last I remember of it."

"Did your parents pay anything? Give anything up?" Vincent asked. 

"Yeah… When I woke up they had turned old. They're only fifty but they look one hundred. And they don't remember anything. They just think the doctors made me better and act like they're taking some kind of early retirement. I tried to talk to them about it forever but they just kept asking if I had a bad nightmare."

Erin heard the scratch of pen on paper somewhere but busied herself with pulling her shirt back down and readjusting, avoiding everyone's eyes again. "And that's what happened… No trace of the crazies or anything and I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life. It's been really nice to be able to live without worrying about the next appointment or be in pain all the time. But with the Angels that keep coming… I don't know what to think."

She felt Lyla's arms come around her shoulders in a tight hug and just hugged back, taking deep breaths for now. She'd talked about it… for better or worse. Now to see what they could do with the information. She would just need to think about that.

Though, even though there was a lot of deliberating going on already between the three older Immortals she didn't have the heart to listen yet. Not until voices started to raise in argument.

"You don't recognize that at all? How? Haven't you been all around the world?" Geni was asking, probably looking at whatever recreation of the stuff on her back they'd made. "And you're telling me it doesn't match-"

"That's exactly what I'm saying! Fucking damn it, man," Vincent snapped. It was strange to hear anger in his voice, enough to make Erin and Lyla turn to look at him. He was shaking with it, an intensity in his eyes that made the red in them shine brighter than the lights. But he kept an even tone even if he sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. "I'd ask around but I can't really do that right now so we're just gonna have to figure it out ourselves."

"Seriously?" Lyla asked incredulously. "Why wouldn't you be able to ask anyone? Your grandpa's  _ Dracula.  _ Just call him and ask what he knows about blood… stuff. He should be an expert on that."

"She has a point. It might be time to forget whatever personal problems you have with your family Vincent," Annie said. "Their knowledge could be very useful here."

And then the calm, even tone was gone. Erin retreated to the far wall when Vincent was suddenly on his feet and putting his newly regrown arm through a wall, tearing it down in an instant with an anguished howl. 

_ You seriously think I'd deal with this existential Angel bullshit if I had a CHOICE?! I'd love to call in Grandpa or my brother who's [] [][][][][][][] [][][][][][][] [][][]! But I don't 'cause this whole world [][][]'[] [][][][][][][] [][][][] [][][] [] [][][]'[] [][] [][][][]!!! I'd kill myself ten times over if I could just get you guys out of this [][][][] [][][][][][][] [][][][] but I CAN'T-!!! _

"-It's been really nice to be able to live without worrying about the next appointment or be in pain all the time. But with the Angels that keep coming… I don't know what to think."

Despite what Erin had said about not wanting a big reaction to her story, Geni was having a hard time keeping herself still now that she'd heard it. She had never been the affectionate type but found herself wanting to at least offer some kind of comfort or consolation to the young girl the way Lyla was doing. This whole situation was bringing out all sorts of reactions in herself that she didn't understand. Normally she would never volunteer to talk to someone alone to talk them out of a depression. That was Annie's bag. Hell, that was Annie's self-assigned duty. But Geni was white-knuckling the back of her couch in her indecision now. 

Thankfully, the scratching of pen on paper distracted her. 

Vincent had sketched out a perfect copy of the strange sigils on Erin's back and was studying them intently, holding them up for Annie to examine too. They conversed about them in low tones, one equally as lost as the other from the sound of it. 

"Erin?" Geni called the name hesitantly, not wanting to intrude on the girl's moment at all, but she still got a clear enough look from her that she asked her question anyway. She seemed to be alright. Or managing at least. "Do these symbols mean anything to you?"

A shake of the head. 

"Then they're likely something to do with the magic used on you or the Angels themselves," she theorized. 

"Could be. I don't recognize them either so I can only assume," Annie said, sighing and leaning herself back against the kitchen counter. "If we assume the former to be more likely then trying to translate them would be pointless. That's the direction I would take considering that ritual didn't seem to have anything to do with any Angels. It was just a… very costly way of granting someone immortality. But assuming it's only magical in nature brings its own problems. Writing for spells sometimes has no purpose past the act."

"So that would mean we're back to square one. We need to figure out why the Angels are so attracted to Erin and if these marks have something to do with them finding a way to translate them would be-"

"May as well ask why they're so attracted to  _ you  _ while we're at it. We've done so well figuring that out. I've done more than my fair share of reading ancient garbage trying. A good few decades at  _ least. _ " The bitterness in Vincent's voice when he abruptly spoke up caught Geni off guard.

"I appreciate the effort but… Isn't that pointless by now?" She had to ask rather than wonder if she was reading into it too much. "It's been-"

"A long-ass time. I know. But yeah I've still been trying," Vincent admitted. He had his hands clenched together in front of him and she could hear the uncomfortable strain of the two appendages strangling each other. As if he were holding himself back from something. "Still don't know nothin', either. So I'm no help."

"You really don't know why the Angels chase you?" Lyla's voice called Geni out directly and she looked over to see intense flame-colored eyes locked onto her. She back-pedaled a step. "I thought you would've known something if you've been playing bait for them. If Erin has to own up to what's up with her then maybe you should too. You're the only other one like her, right? The only other info we have is that the Angels  _ only chase Immortals _ . You  _ all  _ said that yourselves and you seem like the people who know the most out of everyone. I for one would  _ love  _ to get this figured out so we can all go back to normal. I've been suspicious of all of this from the start and this seems like the closest anyone's ever gotten to an answer. Let's figure it out."

Vincent held his hands up and immediately deflected. "If she wants to talk about it… That's her story to tell dude, not mine."

Logic. Youthful passion. Nearly impossible things to fight. And no matter how hard Geni balked at the thought of going through her own trauma yet another time there was no denying that she wouldn't escape it this time. Or shouldn't. She knew for a fact that if she tried hard enough she could turn the argument around so they only looked at the information they had without looking too closely at her. Maybe they could figure something out by examining Erin's story. But that would mean denying herself the chance for answers to questions unanswered since 2375.

It was time to put her foot down and say she'd waited long enough. 

"Earth to Geni? Hello? Still in there?" 

Perfectly manicured fingers snapped in Geni's face, pulling her out of the funk she hadn't realized she fell into. Annie had a couple glasses of wine in hand and seemed ready to offer one up to her. Her favorite kind too. She took one, holding it up to watch it sparkle in the light. 

"Going by Erin's story, she almost lost her life but got more than its sum given back. Those were the basic facts I heard." She paused, briefly considering her coming phrasing for delicacy. And found none. "All I did was lose. I wanted to survive. I don't remember why but that's not important. I wanted to so desperately that I made a bargain. In return for my survival I lost half my soul. I lost everything that made me human, except my outer shell. There's no tragic story or great triumph in that. Just… Just an idiot girl too scared to face reality."

The glass fell. The wine made a beautiful shimmering arc before her eyes for the briefest of moments. Up until it splattered uselessly across the floor, mixing with shattered crystal. She picked up the largest, most jagged piece. 

"The best guess about why the Angels hunt me more than anyone else has always been fear. They fear what kills them, just like we do. Maybe. We can't question them when they always have the upper hand. The greater numbers. That was why I decided to make them scream until we figured it out, because apparently I can. You could listen too if you want. Cut me open and you'll hear what's left of them yell before they fade away-"

A hand caught her right wrist before she could drive that spike of glass into her left as a demonstration. Vincent's hand. With all of it's silly bangles, rings, and scattered tattoos across ivory skin. She should've expected that and caught the sadness in his eyes, feeling a pang of remorse for being the cause. 

It was the hand that snatched her left to hold it tight that blindsided her. This hand was dark against her tan, warm and soothing with a desperate grip that brought a wave of tears to her eyes. Erin's hand. 

And without thinking she dropped the glass and accepted a tackled hug from the young girl, wondering if this was what it meant to live.


End file.
